Isaac Israel Hayes
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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 during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, 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 Ass ...
. 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

Isaac Israel Hayes was born on March 5, 1832, in
Chester County, Pennsylvania Chester County (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Tscheschter Kaundi''), colloquially referred to as Chesco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in ...
, to Benjamin Hayes. He was raised on his family's farm before being sent to the coeducational Westtown School, which had been founded in Chester County in 1799 by the
Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...
(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. 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, the project's members left New York harbor in June 1853 in search of Franklin's lost expedition. 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 (; ) 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. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total ...
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 hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...
– until forced to return to Kane's main group, where Hayes then underwent the amputation of three of his frostbitten toes before Kane ordered the group to head to Greenland via sledge and boat. After reaching New York in October 1855 and recuperating from the ordeal, Hayes then embarked on a lecture tour, speaking before audiences at the
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 United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...
and
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and eventually becoming "the most prolific lecturer and writer on the Arctic in the nineteenth century," according to biographer Douglas Wamsley.


American Arctic Expedition

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 indigenous people 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''; ; ; ), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a s ...
,
Smith Sound Smith Sound (; ) is an Arctic sea passage between Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are ...
and Ellesmere Island en route to the Open Polar Sea 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, 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. In 1862, he was placed in command of the Satterlee General Hospital, a sprawling 4,500-bed military hospital in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
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 a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...
, 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. In 1863, Hayes was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.


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 Ass ...
. Representing
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
as a Republican 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-
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Republican," he also secured the support of his colleagues in funding construction of a tunnel beneath the
Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
which, when completed roughly a decade later as the Hudson River Tunnel, significantly improved the efficiency of East Coast transportation by linking
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
to
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
.


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. He died the following morning.


Honors

In 1865, Hayes' expedition was memorialized in
Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for paintin ...
's painting ''
Aurora Borealis An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...
''. During his expedition, Hayes had named a 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) 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's islands, Heiss Island (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 19th-century American explorers American 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 Politicians from New York City Westtown School alumni 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature Members of the American Philosophical Society