Dorothy Heckmann Shrader Collection
HISTORY: Dorothy Heckmann Shrader is a Missouri River historian, who comes by her love of steamboating and river lore naturally. She was born and raised in Hermann, Missouri, which was the busiest port on the Missouri River. As a youth, she spent summers tramping up and down the Missouri River aboard her father’s excursion boat, the steamer John Heckmann. The large Heckmann Family, through the Herman Ferry and Packet Company, owned and worked on the last privately owned steamboats on the Missouri River.
Str. PEERLESS, built at Hermann, MO, 1893, owned by the Hermann Ferry &
Packet Co., ran on the Missouri River until 1905. (Dorothy Heckmann Shrader
Collection)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Shrader, Dorothy Heckmann. The City of Herman: Missouri Presents Hermann 1836, a Dream in Philadelphia, 1986, a Town in Missouri.(Hermann, MO: Graf Printing Co., 1986)
---. Steamboat Kid: Memories of a Missouri River Childhood. (Hermann, MO: Wein Press, 1993).---. Steamboat Legacy: the Life and Times of a Steamboat Family. (Hermann, MO: Wein Press, 1993).
---. Steamboat Treasures: the Inadvertent Autobiography of a Steamboatman. (Hermann, MO: 1997).
SCOPE: This collection continues to be added to,
and at present contains:
Series 1 - Diaries of Mrs. Shrader’s grandmother, Mary Louise Miller Heckmann (wife of Capt. William L. Heckmann, Sr.), who kept a daily diary from the age of 13 until her death at age 62;
Series 2 - Papers of Capt. Edward Heckmann, Mrs Shrader's father, and the Heckmann Packet Co.;
Series 3 - Photographs of Missouri River vessels, river men, and other river and ocean vessels;
Series 4 - Steamboat Bill columns from The Waterways Journal, written by her uncle, Steamboat Bill Heckmann, who has been dubbed the Mark Twain of the Missouri River, and clippings from the Advertiser Courier.
HOLDINGS:This is Special Collection P-5. Approximately 20 linear feet. Manuscripts, archival records, and photographs.
ACCESS: A partial finding aid for the collection is available for download:
Finding Aid: Edward Heckmann Papers (.rtf)
Finding Aid: Edward Heckmann Papers (.pdf)
Dorothy Heckmann Shrader’s Steamboat Picture Index(.rtf)
Some of the collection may be photocopied, digitally scanned, or photographed, depending on condition and restrictions.