Naked Boys Swimming

Naked Boys Swimming
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The following are historic photographs obtained from publications and the Internet depicting the common experience of how boys and young men swam in public schools, associations like the YMCA and Boys Club, and in rivers or lakes in the nude in much of the early to mid 20th century. You will find in a number of these there are clothed girls and women present with the boys as they enjoy themselves completely nude.
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The following are photographs found on various travel/geographic websites recently taken from countries around the world. They evidence that although the custom of boys swimming nude at public places has long since left most western cultures, it still thrives throughout Asia, India and Africa. It is thus not so hard to imagine how it could have been the same in western society a hundred years ago.
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Vintage Paintings & Sketches Archive
A number of artists attempted to memorialize 20th century scenes wherein boys and young men were expected to swim nude, even in public places. Here are a few such paintings and sketches.
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Downloading Above Photography and Art
The above works are included in electronic file folders compressed and then uploaded to Depositfiles.com. The entire download, including certain videos, can be accessed by the link at the bottom of the following sub-page (please note - a separate download is required for original documents, which can be found on the sub-page " Archives - Early 20th Century and After ")::

C. Public Schools, Municipal Pools and YMCA History of Mandated Nude Swimming
When the Internet became popular in the late 1980s, heated debates took place on forums and blogs concerning the customs of the mid and early 20th century that required all boys that participated in swimming activities to do so in the nude whereas all girls were allowed to wear suits. But the power of the Internet also brought with it the ability to research archives and news sources, and it was through that research that those that educated themselves now unanimously agree that it was indeed a common practice.
The acceptability of requiring only the boys to swim nude during this era must be viewed in context. As evidenced in the archives of earlier times presented on this site, it was common for men and boys to swim, or rather "sea bathe" in the buff from the early 1700s through much of the 1800s, which was curtailed when rail systems began allowing the masses to vacation at popular watering places. Yet for boys, skinny dipping remained the norm for swimming in rivers and lakes well into the 20th century. When such activities were moved indoors in an all-male environment, it was only logical that suits were not necessary given tradition. Adding to this tradition were the Great Depression and two world wars. During the Depression, swimsuits were a luxury item that families of lesser means would only purchase for the girls. According to Neil Gale, Phd., a few months after the U.S. entered WW II, L-85 Regulation was implemented. This mandated the minimum use of cloth for clothing since it was needed for munitions. It also stopped the sale of home sewing machines. During that time, it became patriotic for men and boys to swim nude. A review of camp archives shows that nude swimming at camp became virtually universal during WW II. However, hygiene and convenience was recognized and nude swimming at camps continued into the 1960s, beginning to fade in the mid-1950s. For these and other reasons, the practice of men swimming in the nude was considered "manly" with men eschewing the use of suits even when available. But it was not a new trend; rather, an extension of a trend that can be seen throughout the 19th century and before.
As it pertains to the practice of boys and young men swimming nude at public schools, municipal pools and athletic centers such as the Boys' Club and the YMCA, swimming in the nude was compulsory for decades. To understand the reasons, one much look at not only customary trends, but the development of certain technologies, economic realities, and, a societal trend towards greater gender equality.
Swimming pools were introduced by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in the 1880s. In the following decades, the Y began offering their "Learn-to-Swim" classes, which was an organized program featuring certified instructors. It should be noted that after disease, during this early period drowning was the leading cause of death for children and adolescents, so it is not surprising that enrollment was popular with classes often filling to capacity. It is also important to note that those pools became a major source of sustainable revenue for the Y. But in 1906, while working at a YMCA a Northwestern medical school graduate, Edwin Foster, tested the water and discovered it was contaminated. Back then, contamination of water was linked to a number of life-threatening diseases such as cholera, typhoid, meningitis, polio and various infections. In fact, similar to the Covid pandemic of 2020, fatal epidemics had closed down a number of cities. So the discovery of pathogens in the pool waters at the Y caused great concern - not only for health reasons, but as a threat to one of the Y's greatest revenue generators.
Dr. Gale writes about hot the YMCA as well as other public pools began to drain and refill the pools about once a week to fight the problem, and this process continued well into the 1920s. Some of these pools were as large as 45,000 gallons making the process onerous and expensive. The YMCA National Council also recommended the use of sand filters, which had been proven effective. By 1910 the first pool recirculating pump was installed and by 1913 chlorine chemicals were being added to the water. Part of the issue of swimsuits during that era was that synthetic fibers had not been discovered yet, so suits were typically made from either wool or cotton. These fabrics slowly disintegrate over time releasing fibers, which continually clogged these new developed filtration systems (by way of example, look at the lint filter after doing a load of cotton fabrics.) In addition, unless washed properly, swimsuits can also carry the same pathogens that were of concern. Maintaining a large supply of swimsuits that were properly cleaned and stored was not only logistically challenging, but financially as well.
In 1926, the American Public Health Association (APHA) published the first guidelines for swimming pool management. These guidelines were updated every one to three years, as needed. Those guidelines recommended that all males first strip naked followed by a soap bath, then, remain completely nude while swimming. Unadorned, undyed tank suits were recommended for females. The APHA pool management guidelines were not intended to promote nude swimming, but instead, to keep pools sanitary and that meant keeping the water disinfected, which was best accomplished by disallowing the use of swimsuits. Consequently, male nude swimming was recommended in every edition until 1962. APHA guidelines as well as health ordinances at the state level were typically directed by physicians, sports professionals and water sanitation specialists; thus, their recommended safe practices became codified into mandates by virtually every public school, municipality and youth association. It should be noted that during the entire era, females were always provided swimsuits. However, in no literature or published guidelines is the disparity of required swimming apparel between genders ever discussed. This evidences that how during that period, female modesty was an important part of the culture whereas modesty for males was not a consideration.
The mandated baths and full nudity resulted in the design of some interesting technologies. During an NPR radio interview, a journalist told me of an infamous shower device described by one man that had attended a Chicago school during that era called a "ball washer", and she queried me about whether I knew of such water devices designed to wash the boys' balls. I told her my research had not uncovered anything of the ilk. A research associate, O. Caipora, then sent me the following photograph showing the plumbing arrangement of these "ball washers". According to the man that used it, the boys would line up nude then proceed down the "shower runway" getting a powerful spray of water not only from the sides, but underneath so as the genitals and anal region would be sprayed as well.
During the early 20th century, chlorine was difficult to use effectively because managing the pH had to be precise enough to kill the bacteria. In 1939 a discovery came that was called the "breakpoint in water chlorination" Chemical testing was then something pool managers could do more easily. But due to the onset of WWII, automatic chlorination was not widely used until the late 1940s.
There were several things that occurred simultaneously by the early 1960s that reduced the need for the mandated nudity rule. Urban sprawl meant most people swam in pools as opposed to polluted waters, automatic chlorination was controlling the level of pathogens, most swimsuits were being made out of synthetic fibers, polio was conquered and medical professionals now had curative medicines that could arrest the outbreaks of diseases caused by pool water. Thus, in 1962 APHA finally dropped the nude swimming recommendation because it was no longer for health reasons. This is an important event as it underscores the real and justifiable reasons male nude swimming had been mandated for over half a century.
But despite APHA dropping the health guideline and that there were no longer any health reasons for mandated nude male swimming, public schools and the Y continued to require nude swimming through the 1970s and some even into the 1980s. Research shows the reasons were two fold. First, as most people are aware, bureaucratic institutions are resistant of change, even when there are no reasons for a continued practice. "It's just the way it has always been done" was a very common reason cited by coaches and administrative staff of the era. Second, news articles reveal that a number of Boards of Education ruled that nude male swimming should continue despite no heath reasons for it solely due to the cost to the school districts to provide and clean swimsuits for the boys, which, by the way, they had already been doing for girls for decades. Again, gender equality was not a concern in the early 1960s, and the general belief was that the boys should "buck up" and be manly about it (for further research, please see the published news articles and syndicated columns of Dear Abby and Ann Landers posted elsewhere on this site). One such article was published in a 1961 edition of the Appleton Post. It dealt with a petition wherein parents were demanding that the policy mandating that all boys swim nude be lifted. As part of the debate, the school district conducted a survey of other public schools, which showed that 20 out of 31 school districts contacted had policies requiring boys to swim nude while girls did not. With survey in hand, the school board ruled that the nudity policy for the boys would remain in effect. That survey provides some evidence that about two-thirds of all swimming programs still enforced nudity policies for the boys swimming classes in 1961.
The timeline for the slow demise of the rules pertaining to the mandatory nude swimming for males coincides with the timeline of the strong feminist movement of the 1960s. This movement brought about more mixed-gender swimming at public pools while new federal laws opened the doors of many athletic programs to women. These laws also resulted in female reporters having access to men's locker rooms. As part of the cultural trend towards equality, bureaucrats and institutions began losing their fights to preserve the inequitable double-standard policies they had been using for decades and by the mid 1980s, the last few vestiges of the practice died out.
To learn more of this subject matter, the authenticated news articles, journals, historical books, photographs and syndicated columns presented on the pages of this website provide greater detail. What you will find in your research is that although certain practices can be generalized of the subject era, there were often inconsistencies in how the rules were administered based upon where in the timeline one is looking, what region/country one is considering, and, differences between philosophies and procedures between differing institutions. For instance, one can find undisputed proof that boys up to their early teens were required to swim in the nude during family nights or sporting events, including female siblings (please see the 1939 Frenden Scout meet video linked on this site to see boys in their teens stripping naked in front of spectator bleachers inclusive of females their age). Yet at other institutions, female presence was disallowed while the boys swam nude.
We are always searching for more historical insights. Should you have any authenticated historical references, materials or links that will help us build upon this historical review, we would greatly appreciate your emailing us.
Three Part Documentary on the History of Boys Swimming Nude at the YMCA and Public Schools
The following three part video is a YouTube documentary compiled by an historian that did extensive documentation research into the policy requiring boys to swim nude at schools and such organizations as the YMCA. It presents a lot of factual information, is tremendously educational and very well done. It is best to watch these videos as the articles and other documentation presented in our sub-pages will be more meaningful to the learned viewer.
NPR Radio Commentator Talks About Mandatory Nude Swimming For Boys
The following link will take you to an audio broadcast wherein NPR Commentator Robin Washington recounts a time when it was required of all male students to take swimming lessons in the nude up through the late 1970s. In it he shares various anecdotes, such as how uncircumcised boys were thought to have possibly had their penises slammed in doors when they were babies, or when one boy sported an erection while doing the back stroke and the coach poked him with lifesaving pole saying "Get that periscope down!". Washington is editorial page editor of The Duluth News Tribune in Duluth, Minn.
NPR Radio Commentator Talks About Attending Camp For Boys
The following link will take you to another NPR broadcast where writer Mark Oppenheimer recounts his 1983 summer camp experience. The camp, run by Quakers, required all boys to be nude, not only while swimming, but also when playing other sports as well as when sleeping.
This is a very humorous and creative short animated video from the Emmy Award Winning Jerry Zucker. It it he retells the true story of when in 1974 he had to take a swimming class at his middle school in Buffalo, New York wherein all boys were required to participate naked. He and his classmates are mortified one day when they are all lined up nude and the girls' class enters.

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