Levi's Brown Duck Trousers
date: label: Date made
content: 1873 - 1896
name: label: maker
content: Levi Strauss and Company
notes: label: Description
content: Levi's Brown Duck Trousers
label: Description
content: 1873-1896
label: Description
content: The brown cotton trousers shown here were made by Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco, California sometime during the two decades after the company's founding in 1873. Levi Strauss was a 24-year old, newly minted American citizen from Bavaria when he set sail for San Francisco in 1853 to open a branch of his brother's New York City dry-goods business. He prospered by supplying blankets, handkerchiefs, and clothing to merchants in the West for the next two decades. In 1872, he received a business proposition from Jacob Davis, a Latvian-born tailor in Reno, Nevada. Davis had invented a way to strengthen trousers by reinforcing their pocket openings with copper rivets in order to help a customer who complained about his constantly torn pockets. He asked Levi Strauss to join him in patenting the process; then they would go into business together to sell their patented riveted pants.
label: Description
content: Patent number 139,121 was granted on 20 May 1873, and production began immediately. The printed leather label at the center back waistband of these "waist overalls," as they were known in the late nineteenth century, suggests that the product was instantly popular with hard-working men who needed indestructible trousers. The label proclaims "Levi Strauss & Co." of "14 & 16 Battery Street SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. " to be the "Sole Proprietors and Manufacturers" of "PATENT RIVETED DUCK & DENIM CLOTHING. . . EVERY PAIR GUARANTEED. None Genuine Unless Bearing This Label. Any infringement on this Patent will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. LABEL COPYRIGHTED."
label: Description
content: The company's patent expired in 1890, but the popularity of their riveted trousers became an American legend. Iron-clad cotton "duck" canvas (mentioned on the label, and seen in this pair of pants) was gradually phased out in favor of flexible cotton denim, a fabric that was much like the twilled cotton "jean" that had long been used for men's work clothes. By 1960, Levi's had come to be called "jeans" in both corporate advertising and the public's imagination.
label: Description
content: Made of a heavy cotton canvas known as "duck," the pants feature a pair of short tapered belts with a buckle to cinch the back waist yoke, and white top-stitching everywhere except along the outside leg seams below the two front pockets. A small watch pocket is set inside the right front pocket, and a single back patch pocket with Levi's now-famous double arcuate stitching is placed on the right hip. A printed leather label is centered on the back waistband.
label: Description
content: The patented copper rivets that reinforced the upper corners of each pocket and the base of the fly set these trousers apart from all other work clothing of their day. Each rivet is inscribed "L. S. & CO. S. F. PAT. MAY 1873." The pants were fastened and supported by four-hole metal buttons; the two buttons hidden in the concealed fly are unmarked, but the rims of the one at the front waist, and the six suspender buttons around the waistband, are marked "LEVI STRAUSS & CO. S. F. CAL."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: California, San Francisco
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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content: National Treasures exhibit
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Walter Haas, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CS.256979.002
label: catalog number
content: 256979.002
label: accession number
content: 256979
objectType: label: Object Name
content: trousers
label: Object Type
content: Main Dress
label: Object Type
content: Man
label: Object Type
content: Trousers
label: Object Type
content: Lower Body
label: Other Terms
content: trousers; Lower Body; Main Dress; Male
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cotton (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (part material)
label: Measurements
content: waist circumference: 27 1/2 in; x 69.85 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall length, side: 35 3/4 in; 90.805 cm
label: Measurements
content: fly, top of waistband to rivet: 8 1/2 in; 21.59 cm
label: Measurements
content: front pockets, curved opening (not including waistband): 3 in x 4 3/4 in; 7.62 cm x 12.065 cm
label: Measurements
content: front pockets, depth to base of waistband: 8 in; 20.32 cm
label: Measurements
content: patch watch pocket: 3 3/4 in x 3 1/4 in; 9.525 cm x 8.255 cm
label: Measurements
content: patch pocket, right hip: 6 1/2 in x 6 1/8 in; 16.51 cm x 15.5575 cm
label: Measurements
content: levi strauss label, back waist: 2 1/16 in x 3 1/4 in; 5.23875 cm x 8.255 cm
label: Measurements
content: yoke, back waist, height: 3 in; 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: belt, right back: 1 1/4 in x 4 3/8 in; 3.175 cm x 11.1125 cm
label: Measurements
content: waistband, width: 1 1/4 in; 3.175 cm
label: Measurements
content: buttons, center front and suspender: 5/8 in; x 1.5875 cm
label: Measurements
content: buttons, fly: 1/2 in; x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: rivets: 3/8 in; x .9525 cm
label: Measurements
content: seat (cb waist to crotch): 15 1/4 in; 38.735 cm
label: Measurements
content: rise (cf waist to crotch to cb waist): 27 in; 68.58 cm
label: Measurements
content: inseam: 26 in; 66.04 cm
label: Measurements
content: ankle circumference: 16 in; x 40.64 cm
label: Measurements
content: ankle, width of front leg: 6 1/2 in; x 16.51 cm
label: Measurements
content: ankle, width of back leg: 9 1/2 in; x 24.13 cm