Beschreibung:

oversized folio, bound in buckskin, with Rinehart's North American Indians carved into front cover, with additional decoration of a war club and pipe, supported on the inside front and rear covers by a thick piece of cowhide, with pyrographic decorations of American Indian motifs, one signed "Hontz". The title page reading Volume II. The Majority of These Portraits Were Made During the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1898 and on the Crow Reservation in 1900, containing 64 sepia toned silver print enlargements of original negatives printed on 16" x 18.75" textured "linen" paper from the original Rinehart negatives. Image size 11.5" x 14". Each plate interleaved with a title page identifying the subject. Accompanied by a photocopied November 1970 newspaper clipping from the files of the Josselyn Art Museum's registrar's files describing the circumstances of its production by Royal Sutton, ex-president of the Rinehart-Mardsen, Inc. Photographers. The circumstances surrounding the production of Rinehart's North American Indians are unclear. According to John Carter Senior Researcher at the Nebraska Historical Society and an authority on Rinehart, The Rinehart-Mardsen Studio operated in Omaha until the 1930s, when it was purchased by the Brandise Department store. Mardsen continued to run the studio until the negatives were acquired by Royall Sutton in the 1960s, who then began an ambitious project to produce Rihehart's North American Indians. The clipping accompanying the album notes that it was meant as a two volume set containing 130 portraits, bound in leather, and took about six weeks to produce. The reporter noted that the sets had been offered for sale for "about 10 years" at a cost of $1500. The article also makes it clear that Sutton had had little luck in marketing the sets, and was attempting to peddle the volumes at gun shows. There has been some speculation that Sutton was attempting to reproduce a series printed in 1939 for the Omaha opening of the movie "Union Pacific."