He and his brother, Alfred, moved to Colorado in the 1870s and found employment at the Charles Bohm photography studio, in Denver.
In 1881 the Rinehart brothers formed a partnership with Western photographer William Henry Jackson, who had achieved widespread fame for his images of the West.
Under Jackson's teachings, Rinehart's perfected his professional skills, and developed a keen interest in Native American culture.
In 1898, and in occasion of the Indian Congress held in conjunction with the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, Rinehart was commissioned to photograph the event and the Native American personalities who attended it.
Since 1994, the collection has been organized, preserved, copied, and cataloged in a computer database, funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Hallmark Foundation.