There are a modern metallurgical studies on ca. 1912 rivets owing to the H.M.S. Titanic, most notably by Tim Foecke at NIST & Jennifer J. Hooper, who got her PhD on the subject, with Foecke as advisor.
The Titanic had both steel & wrought iron rivets, and excessive slag in the latter may have contributed to their failure & rapid sinking of the ship.
Note the link for "comparison between the microstructure of Titanic's rivets and those from The Farmer's Bank Building in Pittsburgh..."
The Marine Forensics Panel report also notes micro-cracking around the cold-punched rivet holes in plates: "The iceberg did not penetrate the steel, but instead compromised a main riveted seam below the waterline, which resulted in popped rivets, broken caulking, and micro cracks extending into the plate surfaces from the rivet holes."
See the page Metallurgy of the RMS Titanic
I think somewhere in the literature they reported mechanical testing on the rivets.
An earlier paper focused on the quality and brittleness of the steel plates, but mentions rivet installation:
"In the early 20th century, ships were constructed using wrought-iron rivets to attach steel plates to each other or to a steel frame. The frame itself was held together by similar rivets. Holes were punched at appropriate sites in the steel-frame members and plates for the insertion of the rivets. Each rivet was heated well into the austenite temperature region, inserted in the mated holes of the respective plates or frame members, and hydraulically squeezed to fill the holes and form a head."
The AISC has historical data on steel construction: Historical Record, History of ASTM Structural Steel Specification Stresses.
An excerpt that may be relevant is on page 11 at
FEMA also quotes from historical ASTM and AISC Structural Steel Specification Stresses (on page 140 of 435 page of pdf) to give Default Expected Material Strengths:
For 1909–1923 Buildings:
A9 Structural Steel 55 ksi for TS, 1/2 TS for YS
Rivet Steel 48 ksi for TS, 1/2 TS for YS
In addition to the above, for historical boilers and pressure vessels in the US that date back to this time frame, rivets were either steel or wrought iron. The default values stated in Appendix C of the NBIC use the following values;
Iron rivets in single shear 38 Ksi
Iron rivets in double shear 76 Ksi
Steel rivets in single shear 44 Ksi
Steel rivets in double shear 88 Ksi
When the ultimate tensile stregnth of the steel or wrought iron rivet is not known, the default values are
steel 55 Ksi
iron 45 Ksi
I would choose the most conservative route (wrought iron rivets) for your analysis.
