Victorians at the Seashore

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Nineteenth century Americans loved bathing in the sea. Victorian ideas of modesty warred with their concept of healthful exercise and taking the sea air and water (externally, at least).

See the following highlights, Waifs from the Sea-Side, published in Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel (Santa Cruz, California, June 26, 1875). Brief bits of news illustrate the Victorian ideals of modesty, comeliness, fashion, as well as the popularity of seashore bathing.

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. From Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, June 26, 1875, a list of newsy briefs titled "Waifs from the Sea-side." Includes quips and a slice-of-life view of Victorians at the Seashore.

Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel of Santa Cruz, California on June 26, 1875. “Height of the impossible–To fall in love with a girl attired in a bathing suit.” Also, “There was a brilliant display of pedal appendages as a heavy swell caught a party of bathers the other morning.” Note the opinion: “Gayly-colored [sic] bathing suits are the fashion, and every day bathers are dancing about the beach in their grotesque attires.” Column also mentions bath-houses, the increasing number of seaside bathers, and Liebrandt’s establishment with 350 guests per week.

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APPEALING IN A BATHING SUIT? OR NOT?

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. "Hardly any of the fashionable people at the sea shore take baths this summer. Once in a bathing suit and a yougn lady never looks lovely to aman again." From the Detroit Free Press of Detroit, Michigan on July 22, 1875.

Detroit Free Press of Detroit, Michigan, on July 22, 1875

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…Why is it that a woman whose male escort has urged her to sport in the festive surf will go into the water ankle deep, give a little scream and refuse to go a foot further? Here is one invading delicate ground. There never has been an instance of a woman of fine physical proportions refusing to show them in a wet, clinging bathing suit, but there are numerous instances of women made up by the dressmaker who do not wish a beau to know how much he is to marry of what he externally sees.

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~ The Topeka State Journal of Topeka, Kansas on November 25, 1881

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Reading Times of Reading, Pennsylvania on June 29, 1876

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. "In an Abbreviated Skirt: Fair Bather at Ashbury Park Creates a Sensation" as Mrs. Angeline Allen of Newark wore a bathing costume: "..The bodice ... was cut low in the neck, while the skirt was exceptionally short, hardly reaching her knees... The sight of the woman in this abbreviated costume attracted the attention of several thousand people.... thousands of men followed her to her hotel." Published in The Boston Globe on August 17, 1893.

Thousands of men are reported to have followed Mrs. Angeline Allen to her hotel–because she wore a revealing, oh, so modern bathing costume. “It was the first time in the history of Asbury Park that a woman has appeared on the board walk in such a costume.” Published in The Boston Globe on August 17, 1893.

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BEAT THE HEAT at the Seashore

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It’s hot. Late July in northern Utah sees temperatures hovering near 100º (my New England friends would argue “but it’s a dry heat”…and yes, it is). Several commercial water parks in my area see hundreds (thousands?) of paid patrons a day. Kids run through the sprinklers. Moms fill kiddie pools, even adding a block of ice when the water sits in the sun too long and is no longer refreshing. I’ve seen pregnant women sitting in their complex’s swimming pool, up to their necks (buoyancy and cool water are a welcome relief).

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Our Victorian ancestors were no different–in some ways, and very different in others. When railways made travel to the seashores (or lakes) significantly easier, it became quite the Victorian pastime to spend time on the coast (or neat bodies of water) where breezes were cooler and wading pleasant.

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. Quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink the wild air."

Ralph Waldo Emerson: 1803 – 1882

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VICTORIAN BATHING SUITS

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Bathing Suits offered in the Bloomingdale’s Catalog, 1886.

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. "The short-sleeve bathing suit has finally come to be popular with American women, just as men have at last adopted the flannel belted coat ans short Knickerbockers for mountain travel." From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of St. Louis, Missouri on August 24, 1882.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch of St. Louis, Missouri on August 24, 1882.

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Bathing Suits offered in the Montgomery Ward & Co. 1895 Spring and Summer Catalog.

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. Photograph of Men's flannel bathing suit circa 1860-1870, image, courtesy of The McCord Museum, via Pinterest.

Men’s flannel bathing suit circa 1860-1870, image, courtesy of The McCord Museum, via Pinterest.

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Interestingly enough, no American catalogue of the late 19th century (other than Bloomingdale’s) offered (or showed) women’s bathing suits. Only men’s, including just trunks (the primary purpose of which was athletics). The men’s trunks could be worn with an athletic shirt for swimming attire.

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Note: The famous Ladies Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, published illustrations of fashionable women’s bathing costumes from at least 1871 on. The magazines contained sewing patterns allowing subscribers to create their own fashions or to hire a dressmaker to copy the presented style.

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“Knee tights” (for exercise) make good swim trunks, or so says the Montgomery Ward & Co. catalog of 1895.

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Kristin Holt | Victorians at the Seashore. Vintage photograph of two Lifeguards, in short-sleeved, knee-length bathing suits, at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Image from Pinterest.

Lifeguards at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Image from Pinterest.

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VICTORIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD BATHING SUITS

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The “Jersey bathing suit,” worn at the fashionable bathing resorts this season, fits the body like a glove and is armless and descends only to the knees, where a knot of ribbon adds a little ornamentation. The material is of any color, and of closely woven fabric. People who find fault with the shapely outlines revealed by this style of bathing dress are regarded as prudes and run out of polite society.

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~ Atchison Daily Patriot of Atchison, Kansas, on August 15, 1883

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