Hostname: page-component-6898cfcb55-zkb6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-12T00:40:21.739Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Edwin Jesse De Haven: the first US Arctic explorer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Liz Cruwys
Liz Cruwys
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, Barton Road, Cambridge CB3 9BB
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Edwin Jesse De Haven (1816–1865) led the first Grinnell expedition in search of the lost British explorer Sir John Franklin in 1850–1851. Since it was the ship's charismatic surgeon, Elisha Kent Kane, who wrote the popular account of the voyage, De Haven's achievements have generally been overlooked. De Haven joined the United States Navy when he was 13 and was master on the ill-fated Peacock during the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842) to the Antarctic under Charles Wilkes. He saw action in the Mexican War in 1848, and was serving under Matthew Fontaine Maury at the Naval Observatory when he was chosen to take command of the first United States Franklin search expedition. He retired from the navy at the age of 46 and died three years later.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 28 , Issue 166 , July 1992, pp. 205 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Cleaver, A.H. and Stann, E.J. 1988. Voyage to the Southern Ocean: the letters of Lieutenant William Reynolds from the U.S. Exploring Expedition 1838–1842. Annapolis, Maryland, United States Naval Institute.Google Scholar
Cooke, A., and Holland, C. 1978. The exploration of northern Canada 500 to 1920:achronology. Toronto, Arctic History Press.Google Scholar
Corner, G.W. 1972. Doctor Kane of the Arctic seas. Philadelphia, Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Cruwys, L. 1990. Henry Grinnell and the American Franklin searches. Polar Record 26(158): 211–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Haven, E.J. 1841–1842. Journal of Edwin Jesse De Haven during the United States Exploring Expedition. Unpublished, Scott Polar Research Institute Archives MS466/24.Google Scholar
[De Haven, E.J.] n.d. Miscellaneous manuscripts. Unpublished, New-York Historical Society.Google Scholar
Elder, W. 1858. A biography of Elisha Kent Kane. London, Childs and Peterson.Google Scholar
Gleaves, A. 1928. The De Haven Arctic expedition: a forgotten page in American naval history. US. Naval Institute Proceedings 54: 579–91.Google Scholar
Grinnell, H. 1850–1873. Letters of Henry Grinnell to Jane Franklin. Unpublished, Scott Polar Research Institute Archives MS248/414/2–112.Google Scholar
Herschel, J.F.W. 1849. A manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of officers in Her Majesty's navy and travellers in general. London, John Murray.Google Scholar
Kane, E.K. 1854. The U.S. Grinnell expedition insearch of Sir John Franklin: a personal narrative. London, Sampson Low, Son & Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirwin, L. 1959. The white road: a survey of polar exploration. London, Hollis & Carter.Google Scholar
Neatby, L.H. 1970. Search for Franklin. London, Arthur Barker.Google Scholar
Neatby, L.H. 1976. De Haven, Edwin Jesse. Dictionary of Canadian biography 9: 199–200.Google Scholar
Nourse, J. E. 1884. American explorations in the ice zones. Boston, D. Lothrop and Company.Google Scholar
Paullin, C.O. 1930. De Haven. The dictionary of American biography 5: 200–01.Google Scholar
Poesch, J. 1961. Titian Ramsay Peale 1799–1885 and his journals of the Wilkes expedition. Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Snow, W.P. 1851. Voyage of the Prince Albert in search of Sir John Franklin. London, Green, Brown and Longmans.Google Scholar
Stanton, W. 1975. The great United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842. Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, D.B. 1968. The Wilkes expedition: the first United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
US Secretary of the Navy. 1850. Orders of the Secretary of the Navy to Lt. De Haven. In: Kane, E.K. 1854. The U.S. Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin: a personal narrative. London, Sampson Low, Son & Co, Appendix A.Google Scholar
Wilkes, C. 1978. Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes U.S. Navy 1798–1877. Edited by Morgan, W.J., Tyler, D.B., Leonhart, J.L., and Loughlin, M.F.Washington DC, Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.Google Scholar