De Witt Clinton Baxter, “The Death Watch”: Remains of Dr. Kane Lying in State, Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Philadelphia, 1857.

Samuel M. Smucker. The Life of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, and of Other Distinguished American Explorers. Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, 1858.

The death of Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857) prompted an immense public display of mourning. America’s first arctic explorer lay in state in Independence Hall, after the body’s slow, ceremonial procession through American cities. Kane died as a relatively young man, still in his thirties, a mere two years after his great triumph near Greenland. The public perceived him as a hero tragically cut down in his prime. But, in truth, a childhood illness had weakened his heart, and his decision to become an explorer was predicated on his desire to maximize what time he had. Kane died in Havana, where he had hoped to recover from the effects of near-starvation during his polar voyage the previous year.

James E. McClees. Tomb of Dr. E. K. Kane, in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Philadelphia: M’Clees’ Stereoscopic Photographs, 1859. Gift of John A. McAllister.

The tomb in which Elisha Kent Kane was interred had an Egyptian revival design, as did many funeral monuments in the 1850s. Its placement, set into the rock of a high bank above the Schuylkill River, was highly unusual, but appropriate for someone who ventured past previously known geography during his lifetime. In descriptions of Laurel Hill Cemetery, 19th-century writers invariably noted Kane’s distinctive tomb.

The Love Life of Dr. Kane. New York: Carleton, 1866.

After Kane’s death, his prominent Philadelphia family had to deal with spiritualist Margaret Fox, who claimed that she was Kane’s common-law wife. Indeed, Kane had become enamored of the celebrity when she and her sister Kate were giving demonstrations of spirit-rapping in Philadelphia in 1852. Following Kane’s death in 1857, his family refused to grant her a widow’s annuity. Five years later she filed a lawsuit, and both parties reached an agreement: an annuity for Fox in exchange for Kane’s correspondence with her. Charging that the Kanes had not kept their word, she published this volume anonymously. It discusses a visit the couple made to Laurel Hill Cemetery, during which they visited the Kane family vault. Fox quotes Kane: “Here, Margaret, will be your last resting-place.” Impoverished and sinking into alcoholism in later life, she always used the name Margaret Fox Kane. After her death in 1893, she was buried in Brooklyn’s Cypress Hills Cemetery, not Laurel Hill.

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