News Articles, Books and Journals

The subpage links below each contain an actual journal, section of a book or a newspaper article that provide historical record as to nude male swimming and beach bathing in mixed gender settings. We recommend beginning with the book chapter in the link "Recreation & the Sea" as it is very educational and was written by the most knowledgeable historians of this period and identifies 87 references to historical documents supporting its factual findings. In addition, a good discussion about the evolution of swimming costumes and how men continued to disdain them through the 19th century can be found here: Jane Austen - Bathing at the Seaside

The full original documents in .pdf and/or .jpeg format are in our Document Archive download, which can be found at the bottom of the sub-page "Archives - Early 20th Century & After".