Bertha Cohen

Bertha Cohen was the daughter of David I. Cohen and Harriet Cohen. Her father was part of one of Baltimore’s leading Jewish families, active in finance and other fields: the firm Jacob I. Cohen & Brothers was among the leading financial institutions in the country, and her father and uncle Benjamin were among the founders of the Baltimore Stock Exchange. Other uncles included Joshua, a prominent physician, and Mendes, a politician and inveterate world traveler, whose colorful observations of distant lands are preserved in letters he sent home to Betha’s grandmother, Judith Solomon Cohen. Harriet was the daughter of Jacob and Catherine Cohen, a Welsh family from the town of Swansea. It was there, in 1830, that David and Harriet were wed, although details of how they came to meet and marry are sadly lacking. In Baltimore, Harriet, like her new family, became an active in Jewish life in Baltimore and in 1857 was one of the founders of the Baltimore Hebrew Sunday School Association. Bertha never married and few details of her life are known to us. When she died, at the age of 90, she was living in the Cohen family home on Charles Street, which had housed numerous relatives for a century.

Bertha Cohen

c. 1855–60