22 November
William J. Peterson was born in Dubuque, Iowa on January 30, 1901. He attended Dubuque Senior High School, and went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in 1926 from the University of Dubuque. Petersen continued to study history at the State University of Iowa, earning his master’s degree in 1927. Three years later, Petersen finished his Ph.D. at Iowa, writing a dissertation on Mississippi River steamboating.
Nestled on the Upper Mississippi River, Dubuque was an attractive stop for steamboats traveling up and down the river. Petersen’s father was employed by the Diamond Jo steamboat line in Dubuque. When his advisor, Louis Pelzer, learned of this, he encouraged Petersen to set out to research the history of steamboats on the Mississippi. Petersen’s dissertation was published in 1937 by the State Historical Society as Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi.
The study covers a wide variety of topics, from steamboat designs to the transportation of soldiers on steamboats, and includes many photos of steamboats as well. Perhaps one of Petersen’s most notable discoveries while working on his book was finding Mark Twain’s steam boat pilot license. Petersen’s book received the Johnson Brigham plaque from the Iowa Library Association. His passionate devotion to the subject as a graduate student earned him the nickname “Steamboat Bill.”
In 1947, after serving seventeen years as a research assistant at the State Historical Society at Iowa (SHSI), Petersen was appointed superintendent. Holding a part-time appointment in the History Department, Petersen taught a course on Iowa history until his retirement in 1969. By the time Petersen left SHSI in 1972, he had helped raise the number of members from 1,000 to nearly 11,000, which increased funding and allowed the SHSI to obtain additional documents and expand the collection of archives. Petersen also persuaded the state legislature to finance the construction of the Centennial Building at 402 Iowa Avenue in Iowa City as the new home for the State Historical Society of Iowa. Petersen remained superintendent of the SHSI for the next twenty-five years.
Although Petersen helped to expand the SHSI and promote appreciation for Iowa’s history, his approach was celebratory and antiquarian, rather than analytical and scholarly. Under his leadership, SHSI abandoned the mission started under Benjamin Shambaugh to promote and publish scholarly research. “The inevitable retrenchment of the Society’s publication program occasioned by the depression was reinforced by Petersen’s own proclivities,” observes Stow Persons. Under Petersen, SHSI terminated publication of the Iowa Journal of History and Politics and greatly curtailed book publications. Petersen even issued reruns of earlier issues of the SHSI publication, The Palimpsest, instead of publishing new work, and often added illustrations to change the format of the article. “Publicizing Iowa history as distinguished from studying it became the chief activity of the Society,” lamented Persons. According to Alan Schroder, in a 1981 study for the Iowa State Historical Department, History, Analysis, and Recommendations Concerning the Public Programs of the Iowa State Historical Department, Division of the State Historical Society, “The Society’s historical tours were essentially visual entertainment with a light dusting of historical commentary.” Many colleagues and professors across the state increasingly criticized Petersen for the way he ran the SHSI. His harshest critic was Iowa State historian, Walter Rundell, who bemoaned that the organization had become a “source of embarrassment to professional historians” and “the laughing stock of the history profession.” In 1972, Petersen resigned from SHSI, stating health reasons following a heart attack he suffered the year before.
Petersen is nevertheless remembered for his lifelong work on Upper Mississippi steamboating as well as a major figure in the study of Iowa history. In 1988, the year before he died, Petersen was honored with the first Petersen-Harlan Award, partially named after him, for “significant long-term contributions to Iowa history.” The Petersen-Harlan award remains the most prestigious award from the State Historical Society of Iowa to honor contributions to Iowa history by individuals or groups.
The William J. Petersen Collection, Charles C. Myers Library, University of Dubuque
Nathan J. Gruber, “Steamboat Bill: William J. Petersen, Iowa’s River Historian” (2010)