Levi Strauss

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person Levi Strauss (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell; born Löb Strauß, Template:IPA; February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.<ref name="Downey">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>James Sullivan, Jeans: a cultural history of an American icon (Gotham, 2007).</ref>

Early life

File:Buttenheim Levi Strauss Haus.jpg

Birthplace of Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss was born to a Jewish family in Buttenheim on February 26, 1829, in the Franconia region of the Kingdom of Bavaria in the German Confederation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He was the son of Hirsch Strauss and Hirsch’s second wife, Rebecca Strauss (née Haas).<ref>Dietze, Joachim. "Levi Strauss" (family tree). joachim-dietze.de. Rebecca Haas, July 6, 1799–1869 San Francisco. Source: Levi-Strauss-Museum, Buttenheim. Retrieved March 20, 2019.</ref><ref>"Died". Daily Alta California (San Francisco). January 8, 1869. Via California Digital Newspaper Collection. cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved March 20, 2019. "In this city, Jan. 6th, Mrs. Rebecca Strauss, mother of Levi Strauss, of this city, aged 69 years, a native of Bavaria."</ref>

In 1847, aged 18, Strauss travelled with his mother and two sisters to the United States to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co., at 108 Liberty Street in Manhattan.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="PBS">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Vpreservation">Template:Cite web</ref> After arriving in New York, Strauss worked as an itinerant peddler of goods from his brother's store: kettles, blankets and sewing goods.<ref name="PBS"/><ref name="Vpreservation"/>

Business career

Levi's sister Fanny and her husband David Stern moved to St. Louis, Missouri, while Levi went to live in Louisville, Kentucky, and sold his brothers' supplies there.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Levi became an American citizen in January 1853.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The family decided to open a West Coast branch of their dry goods business in San Francisco, which was the commercial hub of the California gold rush.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> Levi was chosen to represent them, and he took steamships for San Francisco via Panama,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> where he arrived in early March 1854 and joined his sister's family.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Strauss opened his wholesale business as Levi Strauss & Co. and imported fine dry goods from his brothers in New York, including clothing, bedding, combs, purses, and handkerchiefs.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> He made tents and later jeans while he lived with Fanny's growing family.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Tailor Jacob W. Davis of Reno, Nevada, was one of his customers; in 1871, having invented a way to strengthen work pants using rivets, he went into business with Strauss to mass-produce them.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> The next year, Davis asked Strauss to help him apply for a patent, and the patent (one-half assigned to Levi Strauss & Co.) was issued in 1873.<ref>Template:US patent</ref>

Death

Levi Strauss was never married, and died on September 26, 1902 in San Francisco.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref> His estate was worth about $30 million (equivalent to $Template:Format price in Template:Inflation-year).<ref name="Downey"/> Levi's nephew Sigmund Stern's only child, Elise Fanny Stern,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> married Walter A. Haas, the son of Abraham Haas, whose descendants are the current owners of Levi Strauss & Co.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Dramatizations

In 1960, the anthology series television series Death Valley Days broadcast "The Million Dollar Pants", in which Strauss travels to San Francisco and establishes his business. The episode featured a likely fictional romantic interest, Yvonne Benet. In addition, the episode portrayed a likely fictional character, Patrick Mahoney, that was substituted for Jacob W. Davis.

Legacy

Levi Strauss, a member of the Reform branch of Judaism, helped establish Congregation Emanu-El, the first Jewish synagogue in the city of San Francisco.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also gave money to several charities, including special funds for orphans. The Levi Strauss Foundation started with an 1897 donation to the University of California, Berkeley, that provided the funds for 28 scholarships.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Levi Strauss museum in Buttenheim, Germany is located in the 1687 house where Strauss was born.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> There is also a visitors center at Levi Strauss & Co. headquarters in San Francisco, which features historical exhibits.

In 1994, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Biography of Levi Strauss from the Official Levi Strauss Site.
• Levi Strauss Museum in Buttenheim, Germany Template:In lang
• Template:Fashiondesigner