Julien P. Icher is a French historian and geographer based in the United States. He is the founder and president of The Lafayette Trail, a nonprofit organization promoting greater understanding of Lafayette’s legacy.

With the support of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation, Julien has coordinated the installation of over 227 Lafayette Trail historic markers documenting a journey of over 6,000 miles across 25 states and Washington, DC, making the Lafayette Trail the largest historical trail in the United States involving a nationally known historical figure from the time of the American Revolution. He coordinated the launch of Lafayette250 (lafayette250.org), the first national initiative celebrating the semiquincentennial of Lafayette’s coming to America.

Julien is the host of Follow The Frenchmen, a YouTube series exploring Lafayette’s time in the United States. He also narrated a documentary, Lafayette: A Hero’s Return, produced by a PBS affiliate in upstate New York. He has given over 120 lectures on Lafayette and related topics. Like Lafayette, Icher’s life and work span two continents. He currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland, and is the author of the upcoming biography Washington’s Disciple, The Marquis de Lafayette and the Quest for Liberty (April 2027), published by Stackpole Books and distributed in the U.S. by Simon & Schuster.
