Annotation

Levi Strauss, who came to California as a prospector in the 1840s, made jeans popular in California during the gold rush years. These heavy brown duck trousers were worn in the late 1880s, probably by a teenage boy, and are one of the two earliest known pair of "Levi's." Such work pants were known as "jeans" because they were often made from a cheap, sturdy fabric known as "jean." Eventually, blue denim would become the standard.