PETERSEN, William J.

PETERSEN, William J. "Steamboat Bill” (Dubuque, IA, Jan. 30, 1901--Dubuque, IA, Feb. 2, 1989). America's dean of historians of life on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Petersen's Steamboating on the Mississippi is acknowledged as one of the finest histories of commerce on the Mississippi. Research for the book, which began as his doctoral dissertation, was carried out by Petersen who hitchhiked approximately 20,000 miles stopping in nearly every river town library for information about the river. Petersen later said the experience cost him $84.00 with less than two dollars spent on transportation.

Petersen attended PRESCOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and graduated from DUBUQUE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL. His classmates in 1920 chose him as Best All-Around Man, Most Popular Boy, and Class Politician. He earned a bachelor's degree from the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE and a master's degree and Ph.D from the University of Iowa.

Petersen worked for the Drake University Historical Tours for six years and was a visiting professor at Washington University, St. Louis. From 1930 to 1968 he taught Iowa history at the University of Iowa. In 1947, after serving seventeen years as a research associate at the State Historical Society of Iowa, Peterson was appointed Superintendent. He held that position for twenty-five years.

Petersen credited his fascination with the river to his father, a German sail maker who served as the Dubuque agent for the Diamond Jo Steamboat Lines. In 1932 Petersen discovered a letter written by Henry Rowe SCHOOLCRAFT, the discoverer of Lake Itasca, the headwaters of the Mississippi. Schoolcraft explained that he named the lake by combining two Latin words "veritas caput" meaning "truth head" and taking the three middle syllables.

In 1928 Petersen found Mark Twain's steamboat pilot license while searching through old files, in St. Louis, Missouri. Between 1947 and 1973, Petersen authored nearly four hundred articles for the Palimpsest, the society's magazine. This earned him the nickname, "Mr. Iowa History." After successfully lobbying for state government financing of nearly forty roadside plaques around Iowa detailing local historical spots, he began writing their texts. His efforts to increase the society's membership were widely acknowledged. With his guidance, membership rose from 1,100 to nearly 11,000 in 1972.

Petersen was a member of the Iowa Centennial Commission, co-chaired the United States Territorial Papers Committee, and was a member of the Herbert Hoover Birthplace Society. He was instrumental in raising a portion of the $500,000 cost and persuading the Iowa legislature to build the Centennial Building in Iowa City, home of the State Historical Society of Iowa, in 1960.

Petersen's research led to more than 400 articles for magazines and scholarly journals. Among the books he authored were Iowa: The Rivers of Her Valleys (1941), A Reference Guide to Iowa History (1942), The Story of Iowa: The Progress of an American State (1952), Mississippi River Panorama: Henry Lewis Great National Work (1979), and Towboating on the Mississippi (1980).

In 1986 Petersen received one of the first achievement awards from the NATIONAL RIVERS HALL OF FAME in Dubuque. Petersen was honored in July 1989, by the State Historical Society of Iowa as the first recipient of the Petersen-Harlan Award, named in his honor and that of Edgar R. Harlan, the former curator of the Iowa Historical Department in Des Moines.

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Source:

Hudson, David; Bergman, Marvin and Horton, Loren. The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 2008