Frank Rinehart Post Cards Circa -1905

Thought I would share with you all some postcards I got from a friends ebay auction about 10 years ago.

These are the originals.

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Very Nice !!

Wow! Those are really special. Thank you for sharing and making me aware of one more thing to look for! There is so much to learn.

Beautiful.
Thanks for posting.


I note that Wa tah waso, Iroquois woman
is wearing a Swastika (that design on an American Indian
appears curious to me)

The very ancient swastika symbol is prevalant in many ancient cultures, and unfortunately, now viewed and colored with the unfortunate implications of Nazi Germany.

The ubiquity of the swastika symbol is easily explained by its being a very simple shape that will arise independently in any basket-weaving society. The swastika is a repeating design, created by the edges of the reeds in a square basket-weave

Nice cards! It might be a good idea to reduce the image size to about 600 x 800 - it would load faster for most viewers, aand still show up well :)

That's a reasonable explanation of the swastika,
not including any reference to Germany, I still find that emblem problematic,
I feel that image has been engineered.
I notice in other images, necklaces with busts of Lincoln?
There is a romantic content to the cards.

Rod, this particular emblem was not engineered for any relation to Germany, since this predates Germany's use.
American Indians and Asians have long used the "running cross" in designs.. It is a symbol of good luck, and far predates Hitler's use of it.
The Nazi's used that symbol for themselves because of the original meeting. Also, in most pictures the "running cross" is opposite of the swastika.
In this case she may have just had her necklace turned around.

SV I am well aware of this symbol before the German connection,
I was attempting to suggest leave Germany well out of it,
that doesn't interest me.

What I am suggesting, if indeed the American Native Indian
had developed and singled out this design, in abscence
of any influence from the "old world", then I would
find this rather surprising.

I would not find it a problem in a printed design on a pot
or a cloth, but a carved image as a necklace concerns me.
especially with a faux crystal in the centre
I would suggest this has been engineered by the
producers of the cards.

I will stand corrected (and surprised) if it can be proven otherwise

I'd welcome any comments on the "heart" shape as well :)

Rod,
I get what you are saying..
I have never seen any other American Indian use of that symbol (myself) though I have heard there is.
I would tend to agree with your suspicion.. look at the man next to her who has a medal on..
But at the time these were, "civilized" Indians... and the woman may have gotten it because the liked how it looked.

son of a gun..
from wikipedia

Native American traditions


The swastika shape was used by some Native Americans. It has been found in excavations of Mississippian-era sites in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys. It is frequently used as a motif on objects associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex(S.E.C.C.). It was also widely used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among various tribes, the swastika carried different meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clan; to the Navajo it was one symbol for a whirling log (tsil no'oli'), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals (after learning of the Nazi association, the Navajo discontinued use of the symbol).[40] A brightly colored First Nations saddle featuring swastika designs is on display at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada.[41]

and the mississippian culture referenced in the article goes from 800 CE to 1500 CE

here is the link to the original
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

Nice research everyone. Myself I have a degree in Native American Studies/History.
The Swastika is not limited to Germany and was developed used independently by most cultures that used it.
The mound building Mississippian Culture used the symbol heavily in pottery and carvings long before Nazi Germany twisted it.

Germany at the time of those post cards was the leading manufactor of post cards in the world because of their ability to use color in the printing process, but I would discount the influence of German printer incerting the symbol onto the picture, since this symbol was postWWI.

Thanks all, well it seems a universal symbol
independently arrived at without influence an either side of the planet.
That is amazing in itself.
I wonder the postcards maybe influenced by, and used from
William Cody's "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" show.