Blanche Reineke Explained

Blanche Reineke
Birth Name:Emma Blanche Reineke
Birth Date:8 January 1863
Birth Place:Illinois, U.S.
Death Place:Shawnee, Kansas, U.S.
Nationality:American

Emma Blanche Reineke (January 8, 1863 – August 9, 1935) was an American photographer based in Kansas City, Missouri. She was elected president of the Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America in 1914, but declined the position.

Early life

Emma Blanche Reineke was born in Illinois, the daughter of John Reineke (1835–1924) and Eliza Jane Buckley Reineke (1844–1939). Her father was born in Germany, and her mother was born in Kentucky. She trained to be a school teacher, and later studied photography in New York.[1]

Career

Reineke taught school in Girard, Illinois and Ottawa, Kansas as a young woman. She left teaching to become photographer E. H. Corwin's assistant.[2] By 1903, she was speaking about photography on the Chautauqua platform.[3] She built her own business in Kansas City, Missouri, as a portrait photographer specializing in children's portraits.[4] "I never attempt to pose children before the camera," she explained, "because their every movement is full of unconscious, unaffected grace."[5] Portraits of children by Reineke were exhibited in the Temple of Childhood at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.[6]

Reineke was elected president of the Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America in 1913 and 1915, but declined the position both times. She accepted a position as regional chairman instead; she served as press representative in 1914, and as vice president of the federation in 1912 and 1917.[7] [8] [9] In 1921, she was elected third vice president of the National Photographers Association.[10]

Personal life

Reineke was a charter member of the Women's Dining Club of Kansas City.[11] [12] She was president of the Kansas City Women's Commercial Club.[2] In 1910, she attended the Third National Conservation Congress, held in Washington, D.C.[13] In 1922, she was living on a small farm in Shawnee, Kansas.[14] Emma Blanche Reineke died in Shawnee, Kansas in 1935, aged 72 years.

Notes and References

  1. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25968000/blanche_reineke_1903/ Untitled news item
  2. Frances L. Garside, "From Teaching to Photography" The Courier-Journal (July 23, 1922): 79. via Newspapers.com
  3. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25967829/blanche_reineke_1903/ "From Tuesday's Daily"
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=E-YYAAAAYAAJ&dq=Blanche+Reineke&pg=PA95 "Our Cover Portrait and the Hall of Fame"
  5. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3860851/lawrence_daily_journalworld/ "Many Pretty Children"
  6. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25968604/blanche_reineke_1913/ "The Temple of Childhood"
  7. https://books.google.com/books?id=mfnNAAAAMAAJ&dq=Blanche+Reineke&pg=PA404 "Report of the Women's Federation of the P. A. of A., Kansas City, Mo., 1913"
  8. https://books.google.com/books?id=AO7NAAAAMAAJ&dq=Blanche+Reineke&pg=PA207 "Report of the Meetings of the Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America"
  9. https://books.google.com/books?id=Tu7NAAAAMAAJ&dq=Blanche+Reineke&pg=PA40 "Officers of the Women's Federation"
  10. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25968484/blanche_reineke_1921/ "Ideals Won Out"
  11. [Carrie Westlake Whitney]
  12. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25968714/blanche_reineke_1911/ "Clubwomen Take Office"
  13. Book: National Conservation Congress. Proceedings of the ... National Conservation Congress at ... 1910. Washington : The Congress. University of Michigan. 312.
  14. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/25967742/blanche_reineke_1922/ "Miss Blanche Reineke"