Gelatin silver print, measuring 8 1/2" x 6 1/2", circa 1898–1905, from Frank A. Rinehart’s celebrated series of portraits made during the 1898 Indian Congress at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in Omaha. The sitter, identified in period hand as Yellow Shirt of the Oglala Sioux, appears in full regalia, wearing a feathered headdress, hair-pipe breastplate with mirror discs, metal armbands, and holding a decorated war club. The pose, backdrop, and attire correspond directly to Rinehart’s documented negative from the Omaha sessions, and this print represents a period enlargement produced from that original source.

Rinehart’s Indian Congress portraits form one of the most important photographic records of Native leaders at the turn of the twentieth century, created under studio conditions that emphasized dignity, presence, and cultural identity. Yellow Shirt was among the Oglala delegates who traveled to Omaha in 1898, and his likeness is among the less commonly encountered plates from the series. The photograph captures the controlled lighting, clarity, and sculptural attention to regalia that define Rinehart’s strongest work.

Printed on early gelatin silver paper with the tonal qualities and surface consistent with enlargements made in the first decade of the twentieth century. Light handling and expected age toning, with good preservation of detail across the sitter’s face and beadwork. A scarce early print of a notable Oglala sitter from a cornerstone project in American ethnographic photography.