Frank Albert Rinehart (February 12, 1861 – December 17, 1928) was famous for his photography capturing Native American personalities and scenes, especially portrait settings of leaders and members of the delegations who attended the 1898 Indian Congress in Omaha.
Table of Contents
- 1 Biography
- 1.1 Beyond the Reach of Time and Change: Native American Reflections on the Frank A. Rinehart Photograph Collection (Volume 53) (Sun Tracks)
- 1.2 Posterazzi Poster Print Collection Geronimo (1829-1909)./Namerican Apache Leader. Photograph by Frank a. Rinehart C1898, (18 x 24), Multicolored
- 1.3 The Face of Courage The Rinehart Collection of Indian Photographs
- 1.4 Chief American Horse - OMAHA by Frank Rinehart, Native American photo, Native American wall art, American Indian print. (16x20)
- 1.5 Mcteague: A Story of San Francisco. Rinehart Editions, No. 40
- 1.6 White Buffalo, Cheyenne by Frank Rinehart, Native American Indian photo, Native American photography, American Indian art print. (28x35)
- 1.7 The Face of Courage The Indian Photographs of Frank A. Rinehart
- 1.8 History Galore 24"x36" Gallery Poster, Sauk Indian Family by Frank Rinehart 1899
- 1.9 Arapaho Man 1898 Nblack Horse A Southern Arapaho Native American Man Photographed By Frank A Rinehart 1898 Poster Print by (18 x 24)
- 1.10 Arapaho Man 1898 Nblack Horse A Southern Arapaho Native American Man Photographed By Frank A Rinehart 1898 Poster Print by (24 x 36)
Biography
German American Rinehart was born in Lodi (now Maple Park), Illinois. In the 1870s, he and Alfred moved to Colorado with their brother Alfred. They found work at Charles Bohm’s photography studio in Denver. In 1881 the Rinehart brothers formed a partnership with Western photographer William Henry Jackson, who had achieved widespread fame for his images of the West. Under Jackson’s teachings, Rinehart’s perfected his professional skills, and developed a keen interest in Native American culture. Frank Rinehart and Anna, the receptionist of Jackson’s studio, married and in 1885 moved to Nebraska. Rinehart, who lived in downtown Omaha until his death, opened the Brandeis Building studio.
Rinehart married Anna Ransom Johnson (daughter of Willard Bemis Johnson and Phebe Jane Carpenter) on 5 September 1885 in Denver County, Colorado. They had two daughters, Ruth and Helen, both born in Nebraska.
In 1898, and in occasion of the Indian Congress held in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, Rinehart was commissioned to photograph the event and the Native American personalities who attended it. Together with his assistant Adolph Muhr (who would later be employed by the famous photographer Edward S. Curtis), they produced what is now considered “one of the best photographic documentations of Indian leaders at the turn of the century”. Tom Southall, former photograph curator at the University of Kansas’ Spencer Art Museum, said of the Rinehart collection:
Rinehart and Muhr took photographs of American Indians attending the Indian Congress. They did this in a studio located on Exposition grounds. The camera was an 8×10 glass-negative with a German lens. To achieve the wide range of tonalities that platinum prints allowed, they were made.
Rinehart and Muhr traveled the Indian Reservations for 2 years after the Indian Congress. They portrayed Native American leaders and general aspects of Indian everyday life.
The collection of Rinehart Indian Photographs is currently preserved at Haskell Indian Nations University. Since 1994, the collection has been organized, preserved, copied, and cataloged in a computer database, funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Hallmark Foundation. It includes images from the 1898 Exposition, the 1899 Greater America Exposition, studio portraits from 1900, and photographs by Rinehart taken at the Crow Agency in Montana also in 1900.
Last update 2021-08-06