Isaac Israel Hayes

Infobox Person
name = Isaac Israel Hayes
nationality = USA

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caption = Isaac I. Hayes portrait by Mathew B. Brady, circa 1860-1875
birth_date = March 5, 1832
birth_place = Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA
death_date = death date and age|1881|12|17|1832|3|5
occupation=Explorer, Physician
religion =

Isaac Israel Hayes (March 5, 1832 – December 17, 1881) was an Arctic explorer and physician.

Hayes was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. After completing his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Hayes signed on as ship's surgeon for an 1853 expedition led by Elisha Kent Kane to search for John Franklin. His 1854 exploration of the east coast of Ellesmere Island north of 79 degrees N. resulted in new and accurately mapped geographical discoveries.

Hayes led his own expedition 1860-1 which claimed to have reached the farthest north land ever, on the Ellesmere Island coast at 81 degrees 35 minutes N., 70 degrees 30 minutes W. It was later found that this position is deep within Ellesmere, not on the coast, and that Hayes's resulting map of Ellesmere north of 80 degrees N. was false, because he had represented seriously after-noon sextant observations of the Sun as having been taken at noon, and because his 1861 farthest was at Cape Collinson, less than 10 miles north of 80 degrees.

Hayes returned to the United States in 1861 claiming to have seen the Open Polar Sea reported by Elisha Kent Kane in 1855. The Civil War, however, had come to preoccupy Americans and diminished Hayes' reports of discovery.

During the American Civil War, Hayes commanded Satterlee Hospital, a sprawling Union army 4,500-bed hospital in Philadelphia.

The United States Range on Canada's Ellesmere Island is named after his ship.

Ostrov Kheysa, an island in Franz Josef Land (Russia) is named after Isaac I. Hayes.

Publications

*Michael Robinson, The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture (Chicago, 2006)

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5572 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
* [http://www.ekkane.org/Biographies/BioHayes.htm Hayes Biography]
* [http://www.dioi.org/hay.htm Hayes' 1860-1 backers, data, alterations, maps, picture of farthest]

Persondata
NAME = Hayes, Isaac Israel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Explorer
DATE OF BIRTH = 5 March 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH = Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States
DATE OF DEATH = 17 December 1881
PLACE OF DEATH =