Coffin
Coffin names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Coffin WILLIAM ANDERSON, an American painter
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM ANDERSON, an American painter, born in Allegheny, Pa., in 1855. He studied art in the United States and in Paris. In 1882 he opened a studio in New York, where his pictures immediately attracted attention. He was a frequent exhibitor at the Paris Salon, at the National Academy, and other art galleries. He received many prizes for excellence in artistic work. From 1886 to 1891 he served as art critic for the New York "Evening Post," and he filled the same position for the New York "Sun" from 1896 to 1900. He was Director of Fine Arts for the Buffalo Exposition in 1901 and served in many responsible positions on art commissions in the United States and foreign countries.
Coffin CHARLES CARLETON, an American novelist and lecturer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CHARLES CARLETON, an American novelist and lecturer; born in Boscawen, N. H., July 26, 1823; began life as a civil engineer; afterward gave his attention to telegraphy. In 1851 he began to write for the Boston papers; and during the Civil War and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 was war correspondent for the "Boston Journal," writing over the signature of "Carleton." His books include: "Days and Nights on the Battle-Field" (1864); "Our New Way Round the World" (1869); "Story of Liberty" (1878); "Life of Garfield" (1883); (1883); and "The Drum-Beat of the Nation" (1887), the first volume of a series. He died in Brookline, Mass., March 2, 1896.
Coffin Levi, a noted American abolitionist
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Levi, a noted American abolitionist. He was born near Newgarden, North Carolina , in 1798, and died in Avondale, Ohio, in 1877. His father was a farmer. Young Coffin removed to Ohio and engaged in farming. He took an active interest in the colored people, and was one of the most persistent and prominent of those who helped runaway slaves on the way to Canada, being known, in fact, as the "president of the underground railway." See Underground Railway
Coffin the box or chest in which corpses are inclosed
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the box or chest in which corpses are inclosed before being committed to the ground. Coffins were in use in Egypt at a remote period of antiquity. Some of the Egyptian coffins were wood. There were fine sarcophagi of stone, and in Mesopotamia of clay. Cedar was used in Athens for inclosing the remains of heroes, and marble and stone among the Romans.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The most-changed entry here is the object itself. Collier's 1921 note on "the box or chest in which corpses are inclosed before being committed to the ground" describes a near-universal practice; in the United States cremation overtook burial around 2015 and now accounts for roughly 60 percent of deaths, so most Americans are never coffined at all, and those who are may choose wicker, cardboard or shrouds for "green" burial. Aiton's 1910 sketch of Levi Coffin also needs correcting: before settling near Cincinnati he spent two decades in Newport (now Fountain City), Indiana, not Ohio, and that house is today a preserved historic site interpreting the Underground Railroad — a subject taken far more seriously by historians now than in 1910, when Aiton could dispose of it in five lines. William Anderson Coffin, described in the present tense in 1921, died in 1925; his once-celebrated landscapes are now little known outside museum storerooms.
Written for this edition, 2026.