Levi Strauss & Co. Founded in San Francisco
Poet involved
What happened
In 1853, Levi Strauss founded his dry goods business in San Francisco, California, to serve the growing number of gold miners and settlers in the American West. Strauss's business, which initially sold a variety of goods, would later become the foundation for the world's first blue jeans company. The founding of the company in the Gold Rush city was a pivotal moment in the history of denim.
Literary impact
The founding of Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco, a city that would later become a hub for the Beat poets and the counterculture, connects the history of denim to the rich literary and cultural history of the American West. Strauss's story, that of a Jewish immigrant who found success in America, resonates with the themes of immigration and the American Dream that have been central to American poetry from Walt Whitman to the present. The company's founding also represents the entrepreneurial spirit that poets have both celebrated and critiqued.
Source: Levi Strauss & Co.
