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 1796 - 1879 (82 years)
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| Name |
Mendes I. Cohen [2] |
| Born |
25 May 1796 |
Richmond, Henrico, VA  [2] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Reference Number |
4010 |
| Died |
7 May 1879 |
Baltimore, MD [2] |
| Person ID |
I4010 |
aojd |
| Last Modified |
14 Nov 2011 |
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| Notes |
- (Research):AJLLJ Portrait Database 5 Aug 2011
The son of Israel I. Cohen and Judith I. Solomon Cohen, Mendes was born into a family with extensive ties to finance and civic life. A brother, Jacob, founded a bank, J.I. Cohen and Brothers, and another brother, Benjamin, founded the Baltimore Stock Exchange. Though Mendes too would spend some time in the world of finance, his calling lay elsewhere, indeed it lay overseas.
At eighteen he fought in the War of 1812, serving at the battle of Fort McHenry alongside Samuel Etting. After the war he took up a position at the New York branch of his brothers' firm, and remained there for more than a decade. By 1829 he had had enough and departed for England. The following year, as Jewish rights were being discussed in Parliament, Cohen wrote his mother asking her to send him copies of the letters and speeches of his brother Jacob and other supporters of the recently won Jewish fight for political participation in Maryland.
The next six years were spent traveling through Europe and the Middle East, where Cohen became the first American to explore the Nile Valley. Throughout his travels he wrote extensively to his mother, describing in great detail his encounters in Russia, Turkey, Palestine, and every country in Europe.
Upon his return, Cohen served as a member of the Maryland Historical Society, vice president of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, and as a member of the Maryland State Legislature for 1847-48. Cohen never married, and upon his death, his collection of artifacts brought back from Egypt was donated to create the Cohen Collection of Antiquities at Johns Hopkins University.
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