Rhinelander was born in 1869. He was the youngest of eight children born to Frances Davenport (
née Skinner) Rhinelander (1828–1899) and
Frederic W. Rhinelander (1828–1904), the president of
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Frederic William Rhinelander (1859–1942), His older brother, Frederic W. Rhinelander Jr., was married to Constance Satterlee, a daughter of Bishop
Henry Y. Satterlee. Through his sister Ethel, he was the uncle of
Frederic Rhinelander King, a prominent architect with the firm of
Wyeth and King. His paternal grandparents were Frederic William Rhinelander and Mary Lucretia "Lucy Ann" (
née Stevens) Rhinelander. His maternal grandparents were the Rev. Thomas Harvey Skinner and Frances Louisa (née Davenport) Skinner. Through his maternal aunt, Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander, the wife of George Frederic Jones, he was a first cousin of novelist and decorator
Edith (née Jones) Wharton and
Frederic Rhinelander Jones. Through aunt Mary Elizabeth Rhinelander, the wife of Thomas Haines Newbold, Rhinelander was educated at
St. Paul's School in
Concord, New Hampshire, before graduating from
Harvard University with an A.B. degree in 1891, from Oxford with another A.B. degree in 1896, and from Oxford again with an M.A. degree in 1900. ==Career==