Boss was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Samuel P. and Lucinda (née Joslin) Boss,[1] and attended secondary school at the Lapham Institute in North Scituate[2] and the New Hampton Institution in New Hampshire.

He served as an assistant astronomer for a government expedition to survey the U.S-Canada–United States border.

[5] Boss is noted for his work in cataloguing the locations and proper motions of stars.

He also led an expedition to Chile in 1882 to observe the transit of Venus, and catalogued information concerning cometary orbits.

[8][9] Following his death, responsibility for the Astronomical Journal passed to his son, Benjamin Boss.