From 1903 to 1905, eighteen different cards of Plains Indians were published from photos taken at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898. The official photographer of Indians for the exposition was F. A. Rinehart, but it was actually one of Rinehart’s employees, Adolph F. Muhr who took the pictures. Over one-thousand different photographs of Indians from thirty different tribes were taken by Muhr, and these were originally reproduced as frame-sized “platinum” prints. When some of Muhr’s photos were reproduced as a set of post cards with F. A. Rinehart’s name, Muhr had begun to work with the famous photographer Edward S. Curtis. From 1904 until his death in 1913, Muhr operated Curtis’ studio in Seattle, and he processed and printed most of the photographs that Curtis took in the field. Further material on Adolph Muhr and his association with Rinehart and Curtis may be found in Bill Holm and George Quimby’s book Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes, (University of Washington Press, 1980), pp. 23-24).
The Rinehart set which is listed below represents one of the better pre-1920 series dealing with American Indians. The series appears to have been printed in groups of six over a three year period. The first group was apparently published twice as I’ve seen examples from the 1903 date printed on a heavy stock paper as well as on a lighter weight stock. The heavy-stock is probably the earliest printing, and its cards are also slightly larger than those printed on a lighter weight stock.
1903 Series: (Titles) • Big Man • Wolf Robe • Yellow Wolf • Clear • Chase-in-the-morning
1904 Series: (Titles) • Chief Red Cloud • Chief Sitting Bull • Rain-in-the-faces • Geronimo • Eagle Feather & Papoose • Hattie Tom
1905 Series: (Titles) • Two Little braves • Lost Bird • Annie Red Shirt • Wah-ta-waso • Little Bear & White Bull • Squaw & papoose
From an issue of “Barr’s Post Card News” published in Lansing, Iowa by Chet and Norma Barr.