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As showers began to be installed in private homes the practice of school shower periods abated. But with the installation of home showers, and more than one bathroom in the home, boys and girls became more used to privacy when bathing. Mothers especially began to question the practice of boys swimming naked in schools. It was pointed out that swim suits were being made of synthetic material. Chlorination in the water in the pools was better regulated. Filters were improved. The following story from the Appleton Post in 1961 reports on the emerging controversy and the decision of the school district to maintain the tradition of boys swimming naked.
The American Public Health Association removed its recommendation of nude swimming in 1962. But the weight of tradition kept the practice going in many places for a decade or more longer, as many men testify. When all is said, the reason boys swam naked was because of Tradition. It was traditional for boys to swim naked. They swam naked before pools were built. They swam naked before health concerns about bacteria on swim suits were raised. And no one saw any reason to break with the tradition once APHA guidelines were removed. But the practice began to be questioned when cultural mores changed radically during the 1960s and especially in the 1970s. This article is to explore what was done in our social history. I don’t get into reasons why the practice ceased once it was no longer required by the APHA because that’s in the area of speculation.
Did girls ever swim naked in high school swimming classes? There are internet sites on which women claim that they swam nude in their high school classes during this same time period from the early1950s to the the early 1970s. The practice certainly wasn’t as pervasive as boys swimming naked. But high schools named by women in Philadelphia, Oklahoma, and San Francisco apparently were places where girls swam nude.
Two U.S. presidents—John Quincy Adams and Theodore Roosevelt—were known to swim naked in the Potomac River. Adams, president 1825-1829, stripped down to his birthday suit for laps in the Potomac at 5:00 am every morning. (A female reporter once sat on his clothes until he answered some questions.) Teddy Roosevelt, president 1901-1909, wrote in his Autobiography that he sometimes went swimming with his “tennis cabinet,” and noted that “If we swam the Potomac, we usually took off our clothes.”
The following photo is of swimming instruction at a Boy Scout summer camp ca. 1929. Some boys are in swim suits, others are naked. In the style of the day, male swim suits still had to cover male nipples. Here at Scout camp boys swam naked outdoors in secluded places, as was the custom. But boys who were not used to the practice were allowed to cover up. In my experience of Scout summer camp in the 1950s, there was no nude swimming, although that was the case at YMCA camps.
