One of a kind Steinway

Piano is from the family of the former Chair of the Department of Music at Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska from 1912 to 1961. It was here in 1912 that Ruth Johnson (1889-1968), who came to lead the Piano Department, and the two married in 1915 and had one son (1918-2005). As stewards of a fine music program at Hastings, the classically trained couple valued Steinway pianos above all others. When the Hall of Fine Arts was built in the mid 1950s, there were “over thirty Steinway grands and ‘professional uprights’” added to its recital and performance areas (from “A Happy Occasion,” Steinway News Supplement, November 1956; photocopy available).

In late 1948 or early 1949, a search was begun in earnest for a new Steinway grand piano for the family home. Exhausting that search in Nebraska and environs, they contacted the Steinway company in New York for assistance. When Mr. Steinway learned of the search, he assured Mrs. Fuhr that he would go to the factory floor each day until he found the ideal instrument for the couple’s home and he would sign it. The signature, however, could not be authenticated by NYC Steinway company and may have been written by someone else at Mr. Steinway's direction. No living relatives are able to provide more details on this aspect of its history.

The piano was moved from Nebraska to Tennessee in 1979 and remained in the family home until moved recently to the safe keeping of a Steinway-trained technician, in Knoxville, Tennessee, where it remains and has undergone initial refurbishment.