Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857), US physician and Arctic explorer. Elisha studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, graduating in 1842. After serving as an assistant surgeon in the US Navy he was appointed senior medical officer for the Grinnell Arctic expedition of 1850-1851 that searched for the lost expedition of British explorer John Franklin. After the first expedition only found Franklin's first camp, Kane led the second Grinnell expedition in 1853. He and most of the crew survived after several years of hardship. However, Kane's health was damaged, and he died a year later.