Dr. Lillian Snyder

Dr. Lillian Snyder was a founding member of the National Icarian Heritage Society, a member and past president of the Nauvoo Historical Society, and a member of the Illinois State Historical Society, Institute of Icarian Investigations, and the Communal Studies Association. Her love and devotion to Icaria, the nineteenth century French utopiain experiment that settled and thrived in Nauvoo from 1849-1860, provided her with a lifelong mission to preserve the society’s heritage.

A descendant of Icarian communalists, she was a driving force in the founding and developing of the Baxter/Snyder Center for Icarian Studies at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL, and in August 2004, supported its preservation through a gift for the Endowed Professor of Icarian and Regional Studies at WIU Archives and Special Collections. Dr. Snyder also bequeathed properties in Nauvoo to the Illinois State Historical Society to perpetuate the Icarian mission in the Nauvoo community. The Lillian Snyder Icarian Living History Foundation was founded in her honor.