BENJAMIN
PIERCE (April 4, 1809 - October 6, 1880) was an American
mathematician at Harvard University for about 50 years. He made contributions
to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra and the philosophy
of mathematics. He helped develop
Harvard’s science curriculum, served as the college librarian and was director
of the U.S. Coast Survey. In 1852, he
was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London. Pierce is often
regarded as the earliest American scientist whose research was recognized as
world class. Pierce was an apologist for
slavery, believing that it should be condoned if it was used to allow an elite
to pursue scientific inquiry. Pierce was
an expert witness in the Howland will forgery trial in which he and his son,
Charles Sanders Pierce, proved that a questioned signature was a forgery.
Pierce references the library of German astronomer Friedrich
Wilhelm Bessell, whose measurements of positions for about 50,000 stars and
rigorous methods of observation took astronomy to a new level of precision.
Offering Pierce’s letter to BENJAMIN APTHORP
GOULD (September 27, 1824 – November 26, 1896), a pioneering American
astronomer, noted for creating the Astronomical Journal, discovering the Gould
Belt and for founding the Argentine National Observatory and the Argentine
National Weather Service.
One page 7 x 8 ¾ ALS, Harvard University, Jan. 22,
1867. “My Dear Sir, I have examined the catalogue of Bessel’s library, which
you were so kind as to lend me, with great interest, and have carefully compare
the astronomical portion with that of the University library. It is doubtless an excellent collection and
particularly adapted to the wants of a practical astronomer. It contains
several valuable works not in the college library and some which have been
repeatedly ordered without success. I shall congratulate your son most warmly
if he has the good fortunate to become its professor, and allow me to add that
his good fortune will be well deserved.
“Yours
“Most sincerely and respectfully
“Benjamin Pierce
“B.A. Gould, Esq”
Folds, light toning.
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