James Mills Peirce | |
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 Peirce in 1899 publication | |
| Born | May 1, 1834 |
| Died | March 21, 1906(1906-03-21) (aged 71) |
| Education |
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| Father | Benjamin Peirce |
| Relatives |
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| 2ndPerkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics | |
| In office 1885–1906 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Peirce |
| Succeeded by | William Elwood Byerly |
| Dean of theHarvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences | |
| In office 1895–1898 | |
James Mills Peirce (May 1, 1834[1] – March 21, 1906[2]) was anAmerican mathematician and educator.[1] He taught atHarvard University for almost 50 years.[3]
Peirce was born May 1, 1834, inCambridge, Massachusetts.[4] He was the eldest son of Sarah Hunt (Mills)[3] Peirce andBenjamin Peirce (1809–1880), a professor of astronomy and mathematics atHarvard University.[1] The family was considered part of theBoston Brahmin elite class. The surname is pronounced to rhyme with "purseⓘ".[5] Benjamin Peirce's father, also named Benjamin, was librarian at Harvard.[6] James had four younger siblings; one brother was philosopher, logician and professorCharles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914).[3] Another brother wasHerbert Henry Davis Peirce (1849–1916) who was the First Secretary of the American Embassy inSaint Petersburg,Russia, at the end of the 19th century.[2]
J. M. Peirce graduated fromHarvard College in 1853.[1] While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was a member of theHasty Pudding Club.[1] He attended Harvard's law school for one year.[3] In 1857, he enrolled at the university'sDivinity School and graduated in 1859.[3]
Like his father, James Mills Peirce became a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Harvard.[1][7] He was first a Tutor in Mathematics, then a proctor at Harvard.[3] He was a preacher inBoston andCharleston, South Carolina, but eventually returned to academia, first as Assistant Professor of Mathematics in 1861.[3] He was promoted to University Professor of Mathematics in 1869, then toPerkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics—the same position his father once held—in 1885. He was head of the Graduate Department at Harvard from 1872 to 1895 (becoming its dean when it was converted to the Graduate School). He was the Dean of theFaculty of Arts and Sciences from 1895 to 1898.[3]
Among his publications areMathematical Tables Chiefly to Four Figures (1896)[7] andAText-Book ofAnalytic Geometry; On the Basis of Professor Peirce's Treatise (1857).[1] He was considered a world authority onquaternions.
Peirce was an early proponent of homosexuality, writing extensively about gay love. "Sexual Inversion" (Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2, 1897) by influential British sexologistHavelock Ellis contains in-depth case histories. It featured a letter by "Professor X." Circumstantial but suggestive evidence has identified the letter writer as Peirce. He wrote, "[W]e ought to think and speak of homosexual love, not as 'inverted' or 'abnormal' . . . but as being in itself a natural, pure and sound passion."[8]
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