Bettina Steinke papers
name: label: Creator
content: Steinke, Bettina, 1913-1999
label: Names
content: Circus Saints & Sinners Club of America
topic: label: Occupation
content: Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated 2001 by the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution via curator Wendy Reaves who received the papers from Susan Conway, a friend of Steinke's.
creator: label: Creator
content: Steinke, Bettina, 1913-1999
setName: label: See more items in
content: Bettina Steinke papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The scattered papers of portrait painter Bettina Steinke measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1936-1998. The collection focuses on Steinke's portraits of the members of the Circus Saints and Sinners Club of America (CSSCA) and military figures and includes photographs and printed material. Also found are two buttons, depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower and made from Steinke's portraits.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Bettina Steinke (1913-1999) was a portrait painter in New York, New York. During World War II, she painted portraits for the United States War Department and was a member of The Circus Saints and Sinners Club of America (CSSCA), a national organization that raises money for local charities. 

After ten years as a commercial illustrator Steinke's World War II portraits included subjects President Franklin Roosevelt, Generals Douglas MacArthur and Henry "Hap" Arnold, Admiral Chester Nimitz, and Mme. Chiang Kai-Shek.

Steinke became involved with the National Cowboy Hall of Fame (NCHF) in Oklahoma City during the 1960s, and was a founding member of the National Academy of Western Art. The NCHF held a retrospective of her work in 1995 and in 1996 Steinke received the John Singer Sargent Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Society of Portrait Artists.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.4 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1936-1998
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.steibett
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Due to the small size of this collection the papers are arranged as one series.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed, and a finding aid prepared by Jayna Josefson in 2023 with support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The scattered papers of portrait painter Bettina Steinke measure 0.2 linear feet and date from 1936-1998. The collection focuses on Steinke's portraits of the members of the Circus Saints and Sinners Club of America (CSSCA) and military figures and includes photographs and printed material. Also found are two buttons, depicting Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower and made from Steinke's portraits.