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Col. Mendes Cohen (1796 – 1876) was a Jewish soldier, world traveler and delegate in the Maryland General Assembly Assembly. In 1803 the Cohen family moved to Baltimore, Maryland from Virginia. Mendes was one of several siblings including eight brothers and one sister. At the age of eighteen he served in the war of 1812 at Fort McHenry during the bombardment. He was an important contributor in getting the 1825 Jew Bill passed, which allowed Jewish people to hold public office in Maryland. After the war he worked with his brothers at the family’s firm before leaving in 1829 to travel abroad. His travels took him to cities such as Liverpool, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Geneva, Hamburg, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Athens, Constantinople, Smyina, Beirut, Cairo, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Brussels. Mendes was the first American to visit the Nile Valley in Egypt. He also brought back with him many Egyptian antiquities that now make up the Cohen Collection at Johns Hopkins University. Upon his return in 1847 he took up a position as a delegate to the Maryland General Assembly and served as Vice President to the Hebrew Benevolent Society among other prestigious positions. He also served as delegate to the State Peace Convention during the Civil War. Mendes Cohen died in Baltimore on May 7th, 1876 having never married or had children. Several of his possessions are held in the collections and records of the Jewish Museum of Maryland and Maryland Historical Society.