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.Untitled news item, Ottawa Daily Republic (June 30, 1903): 2. via Newspapers.com
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.Frances L. Garside, "From Teaching to Photography" The Courier-Journal (July 23, 1922): 79. via Newspapers.com By 1903, she was speaking about photography on the Chautauqua platform."From Tuesday's Daily" Lawrence Weekly World (July 9, 1903): 8. via Newspapers.com She built her own business in Kansas City, Missouri, as a portrait photographer specializing in children's portraits."Our Cover Portrait and the Hall of Fame" Portrait (June 1914): 13. "I never attempt to pose children before the camera," she explained, "because their every movement is full of unconscious, unaffected grace.""Many Pretty Children" Lawrence Daily Journal-World (June 26, 1913): 2. via Newspapers.com Portraits of children by Reineke were exhibited in the Temple of Childhood at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915."The Temple of Childhood" Lawrence Daily Journal-World (May 6, 1913): 5. via Newspapers.com
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."Report of the Women's Federation of the P. A. of A., Kansas City, Mo., 1913" Bulletin of Photography (September 24, 1913): 404-405."Report of the Meetings of the Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America" Photographers' Association News (July 19-24, 1915): 207."Officers of the Women's Federation" Photographers' Association News (February 1917): 40. In 1921, she was elected third vice president of the National Photographers Association."Ideals Won Out" Lawrence Daily Journal-World (July 27, 1921): 2. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Reineke was a charter member of the Women's Dining Club of Kansas City.Carrie Westlake Whitney, Kansas City, Missouri: Its History and Its People 1808-1908, Volume 1 (S. J. Clarke Publishing 1908): 634-635."Clubwomen Take Office" Kansas City Times (May 2, 1911): 11. via Newspapers.com She was president of the Kansas City Women's Commercial Club. In 1910, she attended the Third National Conservation Congress, held in Washington, D.C. In 1922, she was living on a small farm in Shawnee, Kansas."Miss Blanche Reineke" Olathe Mirror (September 28, 1922): 1. via Newspapers.com Emma Blanche Reineke died in Shawnee, Kansas in 1935, aged 72 years.
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