2020-07 2 sessions
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/23/2020
HAYES, Isaac Israel Hayes (1832-1881) was an American Arctic explorer, physician, and politician, who was appointed as the commanding officer at Satterlee General Hospital during the American Civil War, and was then elected, post-war, to the New York State Assembly. 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. Autograph Letter Signed "I.I. Hayes" 1pp. octavo, and reads in part: "...Please send by noon one hundred this morning, hundreds if you can spare them. I want as many as possible of my letter & work. As for pay I will settle when I come down not having the case now by me..." Fine condition. 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 which saw spikes in patients following the Second Battle of Bull Run and Battle of Gettysburg, 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.
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