Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an American
Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at
Satterlee General Hospital
Satterlee General Hospital was the largest Union Army hospital during the American Civil War. Operating from 1862 to 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisone ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, and was then elected, after the war, to the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
.
In 1863, Hayes was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
His book, ''The Open Polar Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner United States'', was published in 1867.
Formative years and Arctic exploration
Born in
Chester County, Pennsylvania
Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially known as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the De ...
on March 5, 1832, Hayes was raised on his family's farm before being sent to the coeducational
Westtown School
Westtown School is a Quaker, coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, 20 miles west of Philadelphia. Founded in 1799 b ...
, which had been founded in Chester County in 1799 by the
Religious Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
(Quakers). Electing to remain there for two years following his graduation, he became an assistant teacher of civil engineering and mathematics. In 1851, he sought and received admission to the
University of Pennsylvania Medical School
The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...
. After graduating from Penn a year ahead of schedule, he then signed on as ship's surgeon for the
Second Grinnell Expedition of 1853–1855. Led by
Elisha Kane
Elisha Kent Kane (February 3, 1820 – February 16, 1857) was a United States Navy medical officer and Arctic explorer. He served as assistant surgeon during Caleb Cushing's journey to China to negotiate the Treaty of Wangxia and in the Af ...
, the project's members left New York harbor in June 1853 in search of
Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest ...
.
While still engaged with Kane's expedition, Hayes and another team member succeeded in making a round trip exploration of the east coast of
Ellesmere Island
Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. ...
north of the
79th parallel (79° north). Traveling by sledge, they were able to improve mapping of the area by documenting the features of of previously uncharted coastline, an effort which helped future Arctic explorers, and reportedly made Hayes the first non-aboriginal explorer of Ellesmere. When Kane announced his plans to extend the expedition for a second winter even though the group's food and fuel were severely depleted, Hayes and seven other team members opted to head south for what they thought would be safety. Instead, they ran out of food and began to eat the only available food source —
lichen
A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.[American Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...]
and
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
and eventually becoming "the most prolific lecturer and writer on the Arctic in the nineteenth century," according to biographer Douglas Wamsley.
American Arctic Expedition
![-Ship in Ice, Greenland Expedition- MET DP116744 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/-Ship_in_Ice%2C_Greenland_Expedition-_MET_DP116744_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Hayes led his own Arctic expedition from 1860 to 1861 and was able to raise $30,000 for his venture. Departing in June 1860 aboard the ''United States'', he ultimately hoped to reach the North Pole. After arriving in Greenland, he encouraged several Eskimos to join his 20-man party as hunters to ensure that his crew would not be forced to endure the hunger and starvation experienced by previous expeditions. Hayes and his men then set out for
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay ( Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arct ...
,
Smith Sound
Smith Sound ( da, Smith Sund; french: Détroit de Smith) is an uninhabited Arctic sea passage between Greenland and Canada's northernmost island, Ellesmere Island. It links Baffin Bay with Kane Basin and forms part of the Nares Strait.
On the ...
and Ellesmere Island en route to the
Open Polar Sea
The Open Polar Sea was a hypothesized ice-free ocean surrounding the North Pole. This unproved and eventually-disproved theory was once so widely believed that many exploring expeditions used it as justification for attempts to reach the North P ...
but, like others before him, was eventually forced by the terrain, harsh climate and dwindling food supplies to turn back. Taking a measurement with his sextant before making the turnaround, he recorded that he and his men had reached 81°35' north, 70°30' west — which, if his measurement was accurate, would have meant that he and his men had reached the farthest point north to date of any polar expedition. His journal entries did not match the position he had written down in the frigid cold, however, leading subsequent researchers to conclude that he had overestimated his reach by more than , and to speculate that Hayes may have mistakenly noted that his sextant observations of the sun had been taken at noon when they hadn't or that he had inverted the second digit of the group's farthest lone lower limb to read 56°52′ instead of the true observation 59°52′. According to researchers, the farthest point reached by Hayes was
Cape Collinson
Cape Collinson (), also Hak Kok Tau (), is a cape located near Ngan Wan between Siu Sai Wan and Big Wave Bay at the eastmost point of Hong Kong Island. It faces Tathong Channel.
Name
The cape is named for Major-General Thomas Bernard Collinso ...
, less than north of 80° north, longitude 70°30′ west.
Believing that they had achieved at least part of their objectives, Hayes and his team reached Greenland only to learn that their nation had descended into Civil War.
American Civil War
After returning to the United States, Hayes enrolled as a surgeon with the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
. In 1862, he was placed in command of the
Satterlee General Hospital
Satterlee General Hospital was the largest Union Army hospital during the American Civil War. Operating from 1862 to 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its physicians and nurses rendered care to thousands of Union soldiers and Confederate prisone ...
, a sprawling 4,500-bed military hospital in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
which saw spikes in patients following the
Second Battle of Bull Run
The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate ...
and
Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...
, the latter of which was responsible for "swelling the hospital population to more than 6,000" after "the greatest number of wounded were admitted to the hospital in a single month" during the summer of 1863.
Rendering care to as many as 50,000 sick and wounded during the time this hospital was open, the physicians and nurses under Hayes lost only 260 patients between the time of the hospital's opening and closure, a significant achievement when considering the challenges they faced in treating not only the sheer volume of patients they were required to process, but in doing so while employing relatively rudimentary medical care procedures and sanitation practices.
Post-war life
After the war, Hayes penned a book about his expedition days, ''The Open Polar Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner United States''. He then followed up with the publication of other work, including 1869's ''Cast Away in the Cold''. On November 23, 1874, a reception was held in Hayes' honor at the Arcadian Club during which General Roy Stone spoke about Hayes' accomplishments.
Publications
* Hayes, Isaac Israel.
The Open Polar Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner United States'." Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2013 (original publication year: 1867).
* Hayes, I. I.
Cast Away in the Cold'. Gloucester, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom: Dodo Press, 2009 (original publication year: 1869).
Service in the New York State Assembly
Hayes then ran for, and was elected to the
New York State Assembly
The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits.
The Assem ...
. Representing
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
as a
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
from 1876 until 1881, he worked to improve the quality of life for poor and mentally ill members of society, and joined his fellow State Assembly members, the Hon. Harvey J. Hurd of Erie, and the Hon. Thomas J. Alvord of Onondaga, in proposing an amendment to the New York State Constitution on February 27, 1878 to abolish canal tolls as a way of facilitating business growth and general prosperity in the region.
An "anti-
Tammany Hall
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...
Republican," he also secured the support of his colleagues in funding construction of a tunnel beneath the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
which, when completed roughly a decade later as the Hudson River Tunnel, significantly improved the efficiency of East Coast transportation by linking
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
to
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Death and interment
On Friday evening, December 18, 1881, while still a sitting member of the State Assembly, the 49-year-old Hayes suffered a heart attack at his home in New York City. Following his death there the following morning, his remains were returned to Pennsylvania, and were interred at the Oakland Friends Cemetery in
West Chester, Pennsylvania
West Chester is a borough and the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Located within the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the borough had a population of 18,461 at the 2010 census. West Chester is the mailing address for most of its neighb ...
.
Honors
![Frederic Edwin Church - Aurora Borealis - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Frederic_Edwin_Church_-_Aurora_Borealis_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
In 1865, Hayes' expedition was memorialized in
Frederic Edwin Church
Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...
's painting ''
Aurora Borealis
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...
''.
During his expedition, Hayes had named a 2,540-foot (774 m) peak at 81°16'N, 65°35'W "Church's Peak" after his friend Church, and gave his own sketch of it (now in the collection of
Olana State Historic Site
Olana State Historic Site is a historic house museum and landscape in Greenport, New York, near the city of Hudson. The estate was home to Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), one of the major figures in the Hudson River School of landscape pa ...
) to the artist; Church used it as a reference for the peak that appears in his ''Aurora Borealis,'' and painted Hayes' ship ''United States'' in the foreground. Church also produced a portrait oil sketch of Oosisoak, Hayes' lead sled dog, in 1861 (now in a private collection).
In addition to Hayes' commemoration of his expedition by naming the
range on Canada's Ellesmere Island after his ship, the ''United States'', one of Russia's
Franz Josef Land
, native_name =
, image_name = Map of Franz Josef Land-en.svg
, image_caption = Map of Franz Josef Land
, image_size =
, map_image = Franz Josef Land location-en.svg
, map_caption = Location of Franz Josef ...
's islands,
Heiss Island
Hayes Island, also known as Heiss Island (russian: Остров Хейса, translit=Ostrov Kheysa) is an island in Franz Josef Land, Russia.
It is located in the central area of the archipelago, north of Hall Island, between Champ Island and Wil ...
(a German cartographer's transliteration of Hayes Island) was also named in his honor.
[Staalsen, Atle.]
Here was previously a Soviet rocket launch site, now national park rangers move in: The Heiss Island on the Franz Josef Land becomes new base for the Russian Arctic National Park
" Kirkenes, Norway: ''The Barents Observer'', September 5, 2018.
References
Further reading
* Johnson, Robert E. ''Hayes, Isaac Israel'' in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003
* Robinson, Michael ''The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture'' (University of Chicago Press, 2006)
* Wamsley, Douglas W. ''Polar Hayes: The Life and Contributions of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D,'' (American Philosophical Society Press, 2009)
External links
Isaac I. Hayes Papers (Ms. Coll. 135) West Chester, Pennsylvania: Chester County Historical Society, retrieved online February 20, 2019.
*
*
*
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''*
ttps://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/2290 The Papers of Isaac Israel Hayesat Dartmouth College Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Isaac Israel
1832 births
1881 deaths
People from Chester County, Pennsylvania
American explorers
Explorers of the Arctic
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni
Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly
Physicians from New York City
19th-century American politicians
Politicians from New York City
Westtown School alumni