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Coffin, Levi

(Encyclopedia)Coffin, Levi, 1798–1877, American abolitionist, b. North Carolina. In 1826 he moved to the Quaker settlement of Newport (now Fountain City), Ind., where he kept a store until 1847. His home became a...

coffin

(Encyclopedia)coffin, closed receptacle for a corpse. Its purpose is usually to protect and to aid preservation of the body, although in the past some have believed that it may confine the spirit of the deceased. B...

Levi

(Encyclopedia)Levi lēˈvī [key], in the Bible. 1 Son of Jacob and Leah and eponymous ancestor of the Levites. His name appears infrequently—at his birth, when he and Simeon massacred the Shechemites out of reve...

Levi, Carlo

(Encyclopedia)Levi, Carlo kärˈlō lāˈvē [key], 1902–75, Italian writer and painter, noted as an anti-Fascist leader. After taking a medical degree, Levi devoted himself to painting, gaining international acc...

Levi, Primo

(Encyclopedia)Levi, Primo prēˈmō lāˈvē [key], 1919–87, Italian writer. A chemist of Jewish descent, Levi was sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz during World War II. His first memoir, If This Is a M...

Lincoln, Levi

(Encyclopedia)Lincoln, Levi, 1749–1820, American public official, b. Hingham, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1772. A lawyer, he held various local offices during the American Revolution and later became a Jeffersonian pol...

Eshkol, Levi

(Encyclopedia)Eshkol, Levi lāˈvē ĕshˈkôl [key], 1895–1969, Israeli statesman, third prime minister of Israel, b. Ukraine; originally named Levi Shkolnik. In World War I he served in the Jewish Legion, which...

Woodbury, Levi

(Encyclopedia)Woodbury, Levi, 1789–1851, American cabinet officer and jurist, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1845–51), b. Hillsboro, co., N.H. Important as a politician and jurist in New Hampshire...

Strauss, Levi

(Encyclopedia)Strauss, Levi, 1829–1902, American merchant, b. Buttenheim, Germany, as Löb Strauss. He moved with his mother and sisters to New York City in 1847 to join his brothers' wholesale dry-goods company....

Jewett, Charles Coffin

(Encyclopedia)Jewett, Charles Coffin jo͞oˈĭt [key], 1816–68, American librarian, b. Lebanon, Maine. Jewett prepared his first catalog of books as librarian of Andover Theological Seminary. He was appointed lib...

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