Peirce's Odd Jobs

Peirce was always short of money, and in his later years financial pressures forced him into odd jobs that must have tested his patience. Mundane as some of these jobs were, they are not without interest for understanding Peirce’s mind, his theories, and the relevance of his theories to the visual arts. I will discuss briefly three of these. Translator: Peirce was commissioned in 1900 by the Smithsonian Institution to translate from the French an essay by a celebrated inventor: Jules-Etienne Marey’s L’Histoire de Chronophotographie, a pamphlet that chronicled the history of motion photography from Janssen and Muybridge to early cinema. The Smithsonian’s translation appeared in its 1901 annual report, and although Peirce was not credited as translator, his working drafts include notations recording his views of Marey’s essay. Author of dictionary entries: Peirce wrote word definitions for the monumental Century Dictionary (1889-1891). Over 5500 are listed in the complete bibliography of his writings, including definitions for art, abstraction, color, graphic, map, plastic, representation, symbol, virtual, and visualization. Art dealer: On one occasion Peirce tried his hand at selling art. Albert Bierstadt, Peirce’s friend and sometimes business associate from the Century Club in New York, consigned a painting to Peirce in 1896 as part of one of their business deals. Peirce was to sell the painting in order to raise money to secure foreign patents for one of his inventions. Peirce failed miserably in this role, but his approach to marketing the painting is revealing.