Frank Rinehart

Frank Albert Rinehart (Lodi, Illinois, 1861 – Omaha, Nebraska, 1928) was an American photographer of German descent, best known for his portraits of Native American people and scenes of their communities. His most important work consists of the images of leaders and delegates who attended the 1898 Indian Congress in Omaha, held alongside the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition.

Rinehart moved with his brother Alfred to Colorado in the 1870s and worked at the Charles Bohm studio in Denver. In 1881 he formed a partnership with William Henry Jackson, a photographer widely known for his images of the Old West. Under Jackson's guidance he refined his professional skills and developed a strong interest in Native American culture. In 1885 he married Anna Ransom Johnson, the receptionist at Jackson's studio, and settled in Nebraska, where he opened his own studio in the Brandeis Building in downtown Omaha.

In 1898 he was commissioned to document the Indian Congress together with his assistant Adolph Muhr, who later worked for Edward S. Curtis. They photographed the attendees in a studio on the exposition grounds, using an 8 x 10 glass-negative camera and producing platinum prints. Afterwards the two spent two years travelling the reservations to portray absent leaders and everyday life. His collection is preserved at Haskell Indian Nations University and is regarded as one of the finest photographic records of Indian leaders at the close of the nineteenth century.