Abraham Lincoln had a knack for meeting Arctic explorers. On March 1, 1862, Lincoln wrote to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton:
Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, of Dr. Kane’s Arctic expedition, and more recently of an Arctic expedition headed by himself, is an applicant for Brigade Surgeon; and I would like for him to be appointed at once, if consistent with the rules. Yours truly A. LINCOLN
Hayes was a bit of an adventurer. Born in eastern Pennsylvania, he was raised on his family’s farm and attended a school run by Quakers, where while still a teenager he became an assistant teacher of civil engineering and mathematics. By the time he was 20 years old he was in medical school, then shortly thereafter signed on ship’s surgeon for the Second Grinnell Expedition led by Elisha Kane. The Kane Expedition left New York harbor in 1853 headed for the Arctic, in particular to search of the lost Franklin expedition. Over the course of his ensuing explorations, Hayes mapped the previously unexplored Ellesmere Island. The expedition caused near starvation (his group subsisted on lichens) and the amputation of three frostbitten toes.
Lincoln may have been inspired by Hayes’s lecture tour, which included the Smithsonian Institution. He became one of the most prolific lecturers and writers on the Arctic of his time. After his distinguished Civil War service as head of Satterlee General Hospital in Philadelphia, Hayes wrote a book on his Arctic experiences: The Open Polar Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner United States.
Hayes wasn’t the only ice-bound explorer Lincoln associated with. Charles Wilkes, who would during the war instigate the “Trent Affair” that almost started a second war with England, had previously led the first United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1841) in the South Seas, including Antarctica. Lincoln would meet in the White House with Herman Melville, who some historians suggest may have based his Captain Ahab in Moby Dick on Charles Wilkes. Lincoln also met in the White House with Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American scientist who is well known for his study of glaciers. [There is much more about Agassiz and Lincoln in The Fire of Genius]
Lincoln had given his lecture on Discoveries and Inventions prior to becoming president and told Louis Agassiz in the White House that he had plans to expand upon it after his second term. That opportunity never came, but Lincoln’s interest in science and technology did become important both in winning the Civil War and modernizing America.
I take a deeper dive into all of these facets in Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, now available for pre-order.
Pre-order Lincoln: The Fire of Genius now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble (click on the respective links to pre-order). The price is likely to drop before the final shipment, and any pre-orders will automatically get charged the lower price at fulfillment. Pre-ordering now helps the publisher get a sense of the interest, which could mean a bigger print run. So please go ahead and pre-order without worries. While you’re there, check out my other books.
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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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[Photo: Wiki Commons]
