Julius Hesper (1902-1992) spent his life in the tourism industry, working for various shipping and airline companies. From 1922-1939, Hesper served on various ships of the Hamburg America Line, including the RESOLUTE and the RELIANCE, as an Assistant Purser, Purser, Cruise Director, and Cruise Tour Director. On these ships he made 6 round the world cruises, 10 North Cape cruises, 3 Mediterranean cruises, dozens of West Indies cruises, and at least 100 Trans-Atlantic cruises. From roughly 1945-1958, Hesper worked for Pan American Airways as an Agency Sales Manager. Hesper would return to the passenger shipping industry in 1958, working for North German Lloyd as a Passenger Traffic Manager and Company Representative for the next 13 years.
This collection is available to the public by appointment at the Steamship Historical Society. Objects that are fragile, significant, or require additional tools to access may require archivist assistance.
Use, reproduction, and/or publication of archival material is prohibited without prior approval of the Steamship Historical Society. Fees and/or restrictions may apply. Please contact the SSHSA archivist, Astrid Drew, at adrew@sshsa.org for more information.
Julius Hesper Collection, Steamship Historical Society of America Archives, www.sshsa.org.
Collection of cruise line ephemera, memorabilia and passenger lists, collected by Hesper while he worked for passenger shipping companies. Companies represented in the collection include Hamburg America Line, North German Lloyd (Norddeutscher Lloyd), and to a lesser extent, the German Atlantic Line, Cunard, and the Orient Overseas Line. Many objects reflect Hesper’s work, and include working copies of shore excursion programs, shipboard newsletters and communications, and passenger lists that are frequently marked with his notes and corrections.
Series 1: Affiliated Lines and Regional Ephemera
Series 2: Hamburg America Line
Series 3: North German Lloyd
Correspondence indicates that this collection was donated to the SSHSA in August of 1993 by Julius Hesper’s widow, Alice D. Hesper. A deed of gift was signed by Mrs. Hesper on October 28, 1993. The Julius Hesper Collection was accessioned by the SSHSA in 2017 by Astrid Drew with an accession number of 1993.03.