Identifier	ov162
Title	Rhyolite, Nevada. Bottle House
Creator	Mendenhall, Harry W., 1882-1952;
Date Created	circa 1925
Description	A black-and-white photograph of a house built of 50,000 bottles in Rhyolite, Nevada, by Tom Kelly in 1906. Sign in front of house with title "The Bottle House." Posted by Paramount Pictures to record its restoration of the house in 1925 for use in the movie "The Airmail." In the background are the Bullfrog Mountains. Inscription on front of photograph: "The Bottle House. Rhyolite Nev. H.W.M. 792." Title supplied by cataloger.
Historical Background	A major gold strike occurred in the Bullfrog Mountains of Nevada in 1904, around which the town of Rhyolite was organized that same year. By 1907 the town had a population of 6000. The financial panic of 1907 caused many of the mines to cease operations and by 1920 Rhyolite was a ghost town. The "Bottle House" is one of the few buildings remaining in Rhyolite. Rhyolite ws one of the many mining communities of western Nevada and eastern California that sprung up in the late nineteenth century and to which the Owens Valley had cultural and often economic ties. The photographer, Harry W. Mendenall, was the owner of the Camera Art Shop in Big Pine, California and a resident of Big Pine from at least 1910 until his death in 1952.
Type	image;
Physical Description	1 postcard : b&w ; 9 x 14 cm
Institution	Center for the Study of Los Angeles Research Collection, Loyola Marymount University
Collection Identifier	http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt3w1022nb
Country of Creation	US
Copyright Status	Public Domain
Copyright Statement	http://library.lmu.edu/dlp/copyright.htm
Language	eng;
Subject (Name)	Bottle House (Rhyolite, Nev.);
Subject (Place)	Rhyolite (Nev.); Bullfrog Hills (Nev.);
Subject (Topic)	Gold mines and mining--Nevada--Rhyolite; Houses--Nevada--Rhyolite
Form/Genre	Photographs; Postcards;
Metacollection Identifier	http://digitalcollections.lmu.edu/
Item/Call Number	J. D. Black Papers, CSLA-15, Series 3: Photographs, Subseries A: Photographic Postcards, Box 16, Sleeve 37