1-153-101 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857), American naval surgeon and arctic explorer in arctic dress, 1862. Kane took part in two expeditions, in 1850 and 1853, searching for the missing polar explorer Sir John Franklin, who commanded a 128-man expedition to find the North-west Passage in 1845. The expeditions, the latter of which Kane led, failed to Franklin, and the bodies of the lost explorers were not found until 1858.