Jane Eleanor Datcher

Jane Eleanor "Nellie" Datcher (1868 – February 24, 1934) was an American botanist and the first African-American woman to earn an advanced degree from Cornell University in 1890. She worked as a teacher at Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. and was a founding member of the Collegiate Alumnae Club.

Biography 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