Dr. William Petersen, Steamboat Bill
William J. Petersen was born on the banks of the Mississippi at Dubuque in 1901. His father sailed around the world three times in a German merchant ship and came to America in 1872, settling in Dubuque where he was employed by the Diamond Jo Steamboat Line from 1873 to 1911.

Petersen received a PhD. at the University of Iowa. The classic book Steamboating on the Mississippi was his doctoral dissertation. During his research, Petersen hitch-hiked 20,000 miles, 3,000 aboard Federal Barge Line boats and 17,000 by auto. He visited river towns, large and small, interviewing old rivermen, pouring through old newspaper files, and collecting steamboat photos, bills of lading, and anything relating to steamboating. Petersen’s Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi is considered by many to be the most readable steamboat history ever written.

“Steamboat Bill,” as he was known by friends throughout the country, wrote extensively on all phases of Mississippi steamboating. He contributed twenty articles to the Dictionary of American History, wrote for several encyclopedias, and penned 300 articles in the Iowa State Historical Society Palimpsest.

Among his many works, he authored: True Tales of Iowa, Two Hundred Topics in Iowa History, Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi; Towboating on the Mississippi; Mississippi River Panorama; Iowa: The Rivers of Her Valleys; Looking Backward on Hawkeyelan; Iowa History Reference Guide; The Story of Iowa; The Pageant of the Press; and The Annals of Iowa.

 

 

 

 

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