Mike Jackson, Owner
Bernard Steffen was born in Neodesha, Kansas, in 1907 and graduated from Neodesha High School in approximately 1925. He studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in New York. He died in 1980 in his favorite city of Woodstock, New York. One of his pastimes was playing the dulcimer, and he painted The Dulcimer Player in honor of his hobby.Neodesha residents do not have to go to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., where they have four of his works, but you only have to travel as far as the Post Office. Inside you will find his painting First Inhabitants, an oil on wood he did for them in 1938. There is a small copy of of his work, which encompasses the north wall of the Post Office. Bernard Steffen studied with S. Macdonald-Wright; E. Lawson; B. Robinson; Thomas Hart Benton. Bernard Steffen's exhibits can be seen at Mid-Western Exhib., Kansas City AI, 1930-31 (medals); WMAA, 1940-42; AIC He was a member of the American Artists Congress and Woodstock AA. His works include a WPA mural, at the United States Post Office in Neodesha, Kansas and Woodstock AA