Figure 1.--Here we see children at the seaside. It looks to be posed, suely the girls would not dive into rocky surf. Only at the end of the century do we begin to get many seaside images hat were not made at studios in resort towns. The photograph icnot dated, but the cabinet card mount dates to he late-1890s or early-1900s.

Most of our images of 19th century bathing suits come from the 1890s. This is because of the vast number of photographic portraits taken. We see many more portraits taken at beach resorts. This reflects the devekopment of Anerica's industrial econonmy. More and more American wanted to go on seaside holidays and could afford it. And by the 1890s resort hotels were develooped at important seaside locations in the Northeast and Mid-Atlanntic states, although Florida was not yet a major attraction. Most bsthing suit images were taken at the resorts so until the resorts were well established we do not see many of the images. In addition, amateur family photographs were beginning to appear. They were still limited in number compared to studio portraits, but at least we have some. As far as we can tell bathing costumes did not change much in the 90s. The boys outfits were something you could swim in, but it is kind of hard to see how the girls were able to swim, especially with long stockings. Bathing caps were almost universal at the beachfor the girls, but usually not worn in studio portraits. We are not sure just why girls wore them. As far ase can tell it was hair styling. Many girls had long hsir and spent considerable time styling their hair. they did not want sea water messing up their styling. There would be other reasoins in the 20th century, but this seems to have been the reason in the 1890s.

Created: 5:51 AM 6/10/2018
Last updated: 5:52 AM 6/10/2018