Jane Cocking Glover

Jane Cocking Glover and her family contributed to the early development of Washington, D.C. In 1813, eight years after immigrating to the United States from England, she married Charles Carroll Glover, a prominent attorney and civic leader who was an early advocate of D.C. voting rights. The Glovers acquired extensive real estate and a residence on 10th Street, NW (the site of the present-day FBI headquarters), where enslaved servants attended to their needs. As evidence of their wealth and social stature, they commissioned this portrait by the Italian artist Pietro Bonanni, whose murals adorned the U.S. Capitol.

Glover initiated a momentous chain of events by insisting that her North Carolinian grandson be raised in Washington. As an adult, Charles Carroll Glover Jr. became the driving force behind many of the capital’s defining features, including the National Cathedral, the National Zoo, Rock Creek Park, Embassy Row, and the Glover Park neighborhood.