Helen J. (Helen Jeannette) Peirce was born on July 15, 1898 in New Bedford Massachusetts. She attended Smith College and graduated as a member of the Class of 1921 with a major in Spanish and Portuguese. After graduation, Peirce spent a year in Spain on an exchange fellowship and later returned to teach Spanish and French at the East Providence High School in Rhode Island during the 1922-23 school year. In 1923, she joined the Smith College faculty as an assistant professor of Spanish, where she remained until her retirement in 1963.

Peirce was a faculty resident of Morrow House for many of her years at Smith and was active in both research and administration in addition to her teaching. She received her Master of Arts degree from Smith in 1928, completing her dissertation on "Aspects of the Personality of the Spanish King in Hispanic-Arabic Literature", and spent the 1940-41 and 1952-53 academic years at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Portugal, respectively, where she continued her studies. When not involved in her own academic pursuits, Peirce held several administrative positions at Smith College. She served as Class Dean for the classes of 1933 and 1939 and ran the Junior Year Abroad program in Spain and Mexico for several years. In addition, Peirce was the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Students during the 1953-54 academic year.

Upon retiring in 1963, Peirce was able to indulge her interest in photography and bird-watching in addition to teaching a class in Spanish at the YWCA and caring for her elderly mother. She died in 1982 at age eighty-four.

The Helen Jeanette Peirce Papers cover 1917-1982. The majority of the materials are from 1923-1963, during Peirce's tenure at Smith. Types of materials in this collection include correspondence, photographs, albums, and publications. The photographs chronicle her undergraduate and faculty years as well as experiences abroad. Materials of special interest relate to her trips to Mexico and Spain during her time as a Spanish professor at Smith.