Dr. Joshua I. Cohen, Mrs. Cohen and Rachel Cohen

In Richmond, Virginia, in 1801, the last of Israel and Judith I. Solomon Cohen’s eight surviving children was born. Joshua’s early years were perhaps inauspicious. His father died not long after his birth. His oldest brother, Jacob, was only thirteen at the time. In 1808, Judith decided to move everyone to Baltimore, and it was only a matter of time before the Cohen’s established themselves as one of the city’s leading families, their fate subsequently tied up with Maryland’s.

Unlike most of his older brothers, Joshua did not go into finance. Nor, like his brother Mendes, did he set off to travel the world. Joshua instead found his calling in medicine and science. He graduated from the University of Maryland Medical School in 1823; later in life he would lecture there in geology and mineralogy. He served as treasurer of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland from 1839-1856 and as its President from 1857-1858. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Anacreontic Society, and the Maryland Historical Society.

The identity of the woman here, recorded as Mrs. Joshua Cohen, remains a mystery. Joshua, as far as we know, never married. Nor do we know of any children, leaving open to question the girl identified as Rachel. One possibility is that Joshua did have a family that for some reason was kept from the records. Another, more likely answer is that the woman is a relative, perhaps a sister-in-law, and the little girl may well be his niece, Rachel, daughter of Kitty and Benjamin Cohen. The Cohen family was very close, and not long after this silhouette was cut, we know that Joshua was living with his brother David’s widow, Harriet, their six children, and his brothers Jacob and Mendes.

Dr. Joshua I. Cohen, Mrs. Cohen and Rachel Cohen

1840