Bathing machines - 13 fotos

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The bathing machine was a device, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, to allow people to change out of their usual clothes, possibly change into swimwear and then wade in the ocean at beaches. Bathing machines were roofed and walled wooden carts rolled into the sea. Some had solid wooden walls; others had canvas walls over a wooden frame.
The bathing machine was part of sea-bathing etiquette more rigorously enforced upon women than men but to be observed by both sexes among those who wished to be “proper”.
Especially in Britain, men and women were usually segregated, so nobody of the opposite sex might catch sight of them in their bathing suits, which were not considered proper clothing to be seen in.

Once mixed gender bathing became socially acceptable, the days of the bathing machine were numbered.

Blankenberghe, baigneurs.

1 Blankenberghe, baigneurs. Credit: The Library of Congress #
The beach and the sea, Blankenberghe, Belgium.

2 The beach and the sea, Blankenberghe, Belgium. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bathing Machines, Scheveningen, Holland.

3 Bathing Machines, Scheveningen, Holland. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bathers and Bathing Machines, Ostend, Belgium. Pamela Anderson of that era.

4 Bathers and Bathing Machines, Ostend, Belgium. Pamela Anderson of that era. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bather posing for photo - Ostend, Belgium.

5 Bather posing for photo - Ostend, Belgium. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bathing Machines, Scheveningen, Holland.

6 Bathing Machines, Scheveningen, Holland. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bathers in rented gowns, Ostend, Belgium.

7 Bathers in rented gowns, Ostend, Belgium. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bathing machines, Ostend, Belgium.

8 Bathing machines, Ostend, Belgium. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Beach at Scheveningen, Holland.

9 Beach at Scheveningen, Holland. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Harbour and herring fleet, Scarborough, Yorkshire.

10 Harbour and herring fleet, Scarborough, Yorkshire. Credit: National Maritime Museum #
Seafront with bathing machines, Broadstairs, Kent.

11 Seafront with bathing machines, Broadstairs, Kent. Credit: National Maritime Museum #
South sands, Tenby, Wales.

12 South sands, Tenby, Wales. Credit: The Library of Congress #
Bundoran. County Donegal, Ireland.

13 Bundoran. County Donegal, Ireland. Credit: The Library of Congress #
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Comments (4)

  1. frank cork wrote::

    Keep it up. I love old photos. Frank cork

    Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 8:14 pm #
  2. Paulo wrote::

    Nice Photos! Wheres located this beaches?

    Saturday, October 9, 2010 at 4:45 pm #
  3. Sarah Stewart wrote::

    Great photos. Very classic. Now you wear your bathingsuit under your clothes and either go to a bathroom, which are not very clean, undress in your car or front of everybody on the beach.

    Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 4:54 pm #
  4. Leo Simmons wrote::

    Tenby is a beautiful seaside town in South West Wales, complete with a Franciscan Monastery on nearby Caldy Island. Tenby is remarkably unchanged from the aged photograph…

    Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 3:47 am #

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  1. Bathing Machines « Trial By Steam on Sunday, August 28, 2011 at 4:07 am

    [...] can see eleven other photos of this strange swimming practice at The Big Foto, and learn more about the contraptions themselves here. Check it out, and be happy you don’t [...]

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