Peirce, Benjamin (1809–1880)

US astronomer and mathematician. Most of his many publications dealt with astronomy, mechanics, and geodesy – including his corrected revision (1829–39) of Bowditch's translation of Pierre Laplace's work on celestial mechanics – but his major contribution was to American mathematics, in part through his publications such as Linear Associative Algebra (1870), but more importantly as a teacher who inspired generations of other young mathematicians.

Peirce was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Encouraged by Nathaniel Bowditch as a youth, he went on to become a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Harvard (1833–80), founder of the Harvard Observatory (1843), and an organizer of the Smithsonian Institution (1847). He was a consulting astronomer to the American Nautical Almanac (1849–67) and was affiliated with the US Coast Survey (1852–74, superintendent from 1867), with which he organized several expeditions.