Jane Eleanor Datcher was born 1868 and raised in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Samuel and Mary Victoria Cook Datcher. Her maternal grandfather,
Rev. John Francis Cook, Sr., was the founding pastor of the Fifteenth Street
Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.
Education Datcher attended both public and private schools run by members of the Black community in Washington, D.C. In 1877, she earned a certificate for her academic achievement from the
Public Schools of the District of Columbia. She obtained her
Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell in 1890 for her research on the species
Hepatica triloba and
Hepatica acutiloba. Datcher taught chemistry at
Dunbar High School until soon before her death in 1934. Dunbar was known as the best high school for black students in the area, and parents would bus their students from surrounding towns just to attend the school and receive a better education. This school gave Datcher the ability to teach black students at a high academic level, while also earning parity pay with Washington's white school teachers. ==Publications==