Figure 1.-- Here is a photograph from a Western mine showing a group of miners above ground. It was apparently the Mexican Mine in Virginia, Nevada. We belive it was a silver mine. One mner is identified as "Grandpa H. Oates". Two boys are in the photograph. I don't know if they were employed at the mine. One mat be an African-American boy. Note that some of the miners and boys are wearing overalls. It is unclear how many miners are wearing overalls because many wear jackets. The photograph is undated, but was taken some time in the 1880s or 90s.

Thus the early history of jeans is primarily an American story. The history of jeans on the main jerns page essentially tells the story of 19th century trends in America. The first jeans were bib-front overalls created by Levi Strauss in the 1840s as work clothes. They were widely worn by working men, first in mines and than in factories. We see them being very commonly worn by miners and factory workers by the 1880s. We are less sure just when American farmers began to wear overalls. Eventually overalls became associted more with farmers than any other working group. Notably we do not commonly see children in rural areas wearing overalls to school in the 19th century. We are not sure about Western mining towns. The ophotographic record, however, clearly shows that American boys did not commonly wear overalls to school in the 19th century--even rural boys. For nearly a century after they were created, jeans were primarily worn in America and to some extent neighboring Canada by working men. Apparently children who worked, poorer children, wore jeans for work as did adults if they worked in factories, mines etc. Working children in the city, such as newsies, appeared to wear different clothing, such as suits, both knee pants suits and long pants suits. We do not see newsies wearing overlls. A factor here may be that selling newsppers was part time work. And some working children in touch with the public wore uniforms such as delivery boys, telegraph delivery boys, and bellhops.

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web jean pages:
[Return to the Main U.S. jean page]
[Return to the Main casual page]
[Bibfront overalls] [Cutoffs] [Jean shorts] [Koveralls] [Baggy jeans] [Denim]

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site casual pages:
[Return to the Main casual page]
[Camp shorts] [Clam diggers] [Cord shorts] [Jump suits] [Koveralls] [Lederhosen] [Pinafore] [Shortalls] [Smocks] [Soccer shorts]

Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web chronological pages:
[The 1840s] [The 1870s] [The 1900s] [The 1930s] [The 1940s] [The 1950s]
[The 1960s] [The 1970s] [The 1980s] [The 1990s] [The 2000s]

Created: 11:47 PM 1/3/2009
Last updated: 11:47 PM 1/3/2009