Mass Denim

How did the Gold Rush impact the invention of denim jeans?

I am doing a documentary for NHD on the hisitory of denim jeans. If anyone has any websites that could help me, or any old pictures of jeans it'd be great. I've tried all the search engines and websites, but it's really hard finding pictures of ancient jeans from the 1900's.

Public Comments

1. it was they needed strong works pants that could take the punishment of being outside and working all the time. low and behold, levi strauss (dutch i think) had some denim and fashioned some pants and sold them to the prospectors. they all liked them because they held up so well for that kind of abuse.
2. It really didn't. This was simply a marketing story that Levi's did to back up the American origin. In fact, Denim Jeans had their origins as canvas dungarees used by sailors and miners in Europe. Then they were in use during the Gold Rush so were already invented and in common usage well before 1849.