Levi Strauss & Co.

Images of America: California

by Lynn Downey

When Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss opened his wholesale dry goods warehouse on the San Francisco waterfront in 1853, he likely had no inkling that his business would become one of the world's largest clothing companies. Levi Strauss & Co. started with imported clothing, bedding, and notions to supply the many small stores serving the Gold Rush and the expanding American West. By 1873, he and partner Jacob Davis invented the very first blue jeans, which were soon worn by working men from Los Angeles to Laramie. Strauss parlayed his business acumen into social progress by giving back to his community and embedding a company culture committed to positively impacting society. In this spirit, the Levi Strauss Foundation was created after World War II, formalizing the philanthropic work started by Strauss himself a century earlier. All the while, the company has evolved with successive generations of family owners, expanding product lines to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers around the world.

Genres: Fashion

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 2007

About the author

I'm a second generation Californian, a historian of the West, and I aspire to be a full-fledged desert rat. I practice frequently on visits to Nevada and Arizona where I scour the desert for history and stories.

My latest release is "Arequipa Sanatorium: Live in California's Lung Resort for Women." It's a history of the place where my grandmother and hundreds of other women were cured of the dreaded tuberculosis in the early 20th century. https://oupress.com/books/15231554/ar...

My desert rat side just published "Arizona's Vulture Mine and Vulture City." https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Pro...

When I'm not writing I work as a consulting archivist, historian, and curator and have spent time at some great organizations: Charles M. Schulz Museum (Santa Rosa CA), Desert Caballeros Western Museum (Wickenburg AZ) and the Chemehuevi Indian tribe (Lake Havasu City AZ).

Right now I'm researching my next book, a cultural history of the original American vacation: the dude ranch. Then, just to be different, I'll also publish a memoir of the three years I spent in a San Francisco religious cult.