Alice D. Snyder
{{short description|American professor of English and suffragist}}
{{use American English|date=October 2019}}
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| name = Alice D. Snyder
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1887|10|29}}
| birth_place = Middletown, Connecticut, US
| death_date = {{death date and age|1943|02|17|1887|10|29}}
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| relatives = Franklyn Bliss Snyder (brother)
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| education = A.B., A.M., Vassar College
PhD., University of Michigan
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| thesis_title = The critical principle of the reconciliation of opposites as employed by Coleridge
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| thesis_year = 1918
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| discipline = English
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| workplaces = Vassar College
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| main_interests = Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Alice Dorothea Snyder (October 29, 1887 – February 17, 1943) was an American professor of English at Vassar College and president of the Poughkeepsie Woman Suffrage Party. During the early 20th century, Snyder led the campaign that earned New York women the right to vote. Besides her positive impact to the women's rights movement, Snyder was an academic who focused on the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. British philosopher John Henry Muirhead called Snyder a "pioneer in the sympathetic re-examination of these manuscripts".
Early life and education
Snyder was born to a Congregational minister, Peter Miles Snyder, from Connecticut and grew up in Rockford, Illinois.{{Harvnb|Pridmore|2000|pp=156–158}} Her mother, Grace Evelyn (Bliss) Snyder, was a pianist and mathematics teacher.{{Harvnb|James|1971|pp=322–324}} Her brother Franklyn Bliss Snyder became the 18th President of Northwestern University{{cite news|title=Prexy President At Meeting on Women in War Service|date=November 18, 1942|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Miscellany News|location=New York|page=4|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-nov-18-1942-1353937/}}{{free access}}{{cite news|title=August brings more colonists|date=August 3, 1939|newspaper=Bath Independent|location=Maine|page=7|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-aug-03-1939-1353944/}}{{free access}} and her other brother, Edward D. Snyder, became an Associate Professor of English at Haverford College.{{cite web |last1=Snyder |first1=Edward D. |title=HYPNOTIC POETRY |url=http://www.iapsop.com/ssoc/1930__synder___hypnotic_poetry.pdf |website=iapsop.com |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |access-date=September 11, 2019 |date=1930 |quote=my sister, Miss Alice D. Snyder of Vassar College.}}
Her family moved to Rockford, Illinois, where Snyder graduated from Rockford Central High School in 1905. She decided to attend Vassar College, her mother's alma mater, and eventually earned an A.B. in 1909. Upon her graduation, she was bestowed a graduate fellowship for English.{{cite news|title=Fellowships, Scholarships, and Prizes|date=June 1, 1910|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Miscellany News|location=New York|page=89|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jun-01-1910-1354807/}}{{free access}} She was offered a fellowship in English at Vassar, so she remained there until 1911 when she graduated with her A.M. degree. In 1914, after working as an instructor in English at Vassar, she became an assistant in rhetoric at the University of Michigan. Snyder graduated with a PhD from the University of Michigan.{{cite book |title=The Michigan Alumnus, Volume 49 |date=1942 |publisher=UM Libraries |page=440 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_rhAAAAMAAJ&q=Snyder&pg=PA440 |access-date=September 11, 2019}}
Career
Snyder returned to Vassar College as an English professor in 1915 and was acting as chairman of the Poughkeepsie Woman Suffrage Party in 1916.{{cite web |title=Alice D. Snyder |url=http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/faculty/prominent-faculty/alice-d-snyder.html |website=vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu |access-date=September 11, 2019}} During her only term as chairman, she led the campaign that earned New York women the right to vote.{{cite book |title=The Michigan Alumnus, Volume 42 |date=1935 |publisher=UM Libraries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PbhAAAAMAAJ&q=Alice+Dorothea+Snyder+Poughkeepsie+Woman+Suffrage+Party&pg=PA408 |access-date=September 11, 2019}} She also led a suffragist club at Vassar.{{cite book |last1=Lunsford |first1=Andrea A. |title=Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the Rhetorical Tradition |date=1995 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |isbn=978-0-8229-7165-8 |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9hgOM28mmRYC&q=Alice+Snyder&pg=PA219 |access-date=September 12, 2019}} The following year, she was elected president, replacing Laura J. Wylie.{{cite news|title=SNYDER DESCRIBES DIFFICULTIES HERE IN SUFFRAGE YEARS|date=February 29, 1936|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|page=7|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19360229-01.2.23}}{{free access}} By 1918, Snyder stepped down as campus editor of the Vassar Quarterly{{cite news|title=THE QUARTERLY PASSES A MILESTONE|date=November 1, 1918|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|location=New York|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=vq19181101-01.2.21&srpos=112&e=-------en-20--101--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}} and continued her activism within the Woman's Defence Committee and the Poughkeepsie Women's City Club.{{cite news|title=FACULTY NEWS NOTES|date=May 1, 1919|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|location=New York|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=vq19190501-01.2.34&srpos=174&e=-------en-20--161--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}}
In 1920, she was promoted to assistant professor in the English department{{cite book |title=The Michigan Alumnus, Volume 27 |date=1920 |publisher=UM Libraries |page=263 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uxviAAAAMAAJ&q=Alice+D.+Snyder+&pg=PA263 |access-date=September 11, 2019}} and five years later, became an associate professor.{{cite news|title=PROMOTIONS FOR 1925–26|date=June 15, 1925|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Miscellany News|location=New York|page=4|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19250615-01.2.43&srpos=51&e=-------en-20--41--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}} In 1921, as an assistant professor in the English department, Snyder, Wylie, and Amy Reed submitted a report to the entire department that emphasized democratic organization and budget cuts.{{cite book |last1=Bordelon |first1=Suzzane |title=A Feminist Legacy: The Rhetoric and Pedagogy of Gertrude Buck |date=March 10, 2009 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=978-0-8093-8651-2 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DqVXGV_M1VMC&q=Alice+Snyder&pg=PA219 |access-date=September 12, 2019}} In the year following her promotion, she took a leave of absence.{{cite news|title=LEAVES OF ABSENCE, 1926-26|date=June 9, 1926|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|location=New York|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19260609-01.2.47&srpos=74&e=-------en-20--61--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}}
In 1929, Snyder published Coleridge on Logic and Learning which focused on the lesser known manuscripts of poet S. T. Coleridge. In 1930, she was promoted to Full Professor.{{cite news|title=NEXT YEARS PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS SHOWN|date=June 14, 1930|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|location=New York|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19300614-01.2.39&srpos=225&e=-------en-20--221--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}} In 1935, she published S. T. Coleridge's Treatise On Method.{{cite news|title=Reviews|date= February 1, 1935|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Vassar Alumnae Quarterly|location=New York|page=48|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-01-1935-1354395/}}{{free access}} For her work on the poet, British philosopher John Henry Muirhead called Snyder a "pioneer in the sympathetic re-examination of these manuscripts".
She took a leave of absence from the college in 1940 for one year.{{cite news|title=Leaves of Absence|date=February 21, 1940|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Miscellany News|location=New York|page=3|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-feb-21-1940-1354368/}}{{free access}} During this leave, she did further research on Coleridge in the Huntington Library, Pasadena.{{cite news|title=Vassar Feels Deep Loss In Death Of Alice D. Snyder|date=February 20, 1943|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19430220-01.2.3&srpos=6&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}} She returned to Vassar in 1941, where she was subsequently elected chairman of the English Department.{{cite news|title=Faculty Enlarges, Shifts, Welcomes Back Old Members|date=October 1, 1941|newspaper=Vassar Miscellany News|location=New York|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19411001-01.2.25&srpos=204&e=-------en-20--201--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------|quote=Professor Alice Snyder, elected chairman of the English Department to succeed Professor Helen E. Sandison}}{{free access}} She was active in the American Labor Party, Modern Language Association, Modern Humanities Research Association, and National Council for American-Soviet Friendship.
Death and legacy
After her death from a heart attack in February 1943, a fund was created in her name.{{cite news|title=Alice D. Snyder Fund|date=March 15, 1944|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Vassar Alumnae Quarterly|location=New York|page=22|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-mar-15-1944-1353930/}}{{free access}} The year after her death, in 1944, $2,500 was raised.{{cite news|title=1944 Leaves VC In April Graduation, McClure Speaks|date=April 24, 1944|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Miscellany News|location=New York|page=17|url=https://newspaperarchives.vassar.edu/?a=d&d=miscellany19440424-01.2.7&srpos=197&e=-------en-20--181--txt-txIN-Alice+Snyder-------}}{{free access}}
She was succeeded as professor in the English faculty by Edgar Johnson and Helen E. Sandison.{{cite news|title=Faculty News|date=April 15, 1943|newspaper=Poughkeepsie Miscellany News|location=New York|page=17|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-apr-15-1943-1353942/}}{{free access}}
Selected publications
The following is a list of selected publications:{{cite web |title=Snyder, Alice |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Snyder%2C+Alice |website=worldcat.org |access-date=October 7, 2019}}
- The Critical principle of the reconciliation of opposites as employed by Coleridge, by Alice D. Snyder (1918)
- Coleridge's cosmogony: a note on the poetic "World-view" (1924)
- Coleridge on Logic and Learning" (1929)
- S. T. Coleridge's Treatise On Method (1935)
- Coleridge and the encyclopedists (1940)
Notes and references
= Notes =
- {{citation|last=James |first=Edward T. |title=Notable American Women, 1607–1950|location= Cambridge, MA|publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University|year= 1971}}
- {{cite book|first=Jay |last=Pridmore|title=Northwestern University: Celebrating 150 Years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=opBWO0WnWWQC&pg=PA273|year=2000|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-1829-4}}
= References =
{{Reflist}}
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Category:People from Middletown, Connecticut
Category:Writers from Rockford, Illinois
Category:Writers from Connecticut
Category:American women academics
Category:University of Michigan alumni
Category:Vassar College alumni
Category:Vassar College faculty