Isaac Israel Hayes was born in Pennsylvania in 1832. He studied medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania, and in 1853 became the surgeon for Elisha Kent Kane's
Arctic expedition. The purpose of this expedition was to search for the lost British
explorer, Sir John Franklin. While the expedition failed to find Franklin, Hayes
desired to return to the Arctic and led his own expedition aboard the schooner
United States in 1860. Hayes was searching for
the Open Polar Sea and claimed to reach the farthest point north on land ever. Upon
his return, he found the country at war and put aside his focus on exploration.
Hayes joined the Union army and commanded Satterlee Hospital in Philadelphia. He
later accompanied the artist William Bradford as an advisor on his expedition to
Greenland in 1869 aboard the brig Panther. Hayes was
a member of the New York State Assembly and also of the Council of the American
Geographical Society. He died in 1881.
