From 1926 until 1962, every edition of the APHA guidelines recommended nude swimming for males. [18] Given the limits of chlorination and filtration at that time, behavioral measures were also used to maintain water quality. In addition to recommending nudity, all bathers were required to empty their bladder and shower nude before entering the pool. Those suffering from skin or respiratory disease were prohibited from using the pool. [19] When I was eight years old, in 1983, my parents sent me off to a nudist camp; not a camp for adults who voluntarily chose nudism as a lifestyle, but a summer camp for young boys where nudity was encouraged. At Timberlake, nestled in the woodlands of Vermont, boys swam in the nude, slept in the nude, even played Whiffle ball in the nude. Swim Campaign in Full Swing at 111th St. "Y" ". Chicago South End Reporter. June 28, 1944 . Retrieved July 10, 2023.

During the transition to gender equality, attempts were made to retain male nudity by limiting access to the pool by women to certain hours, but since they had full membership, this plan was deemed discriminatory. [25] Boy's clubs [ edit ] Swimming baths" and pools were built in the late 19th century in poorer neighborhoods of northern industrial cities of the US to exert some control over a public swimming culture that offended Victorian sensibilities by including not only nakedness, but roughhousing and swearing. Such behavior had become an issue in the 18th century, but laws prohibiting public indecency had little effect. Naked swimmers from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to New York City, mostly boys and young men, ignored the laws and sometimes flaunted themselves intentionally in view of more upper class passers-by. [1] :9–10a b "Young Swimmers in Championships". New York Times. 18 April 1909. p.30 . Retrieved 2015-11-17– via Newspaper Archive. Craig, H. W. (1941). "Safety and Hygiene in the School Swimming Pool". The Journal of Health and Physical Education. 12 (4): 242–279. doi: 10.1080/23267240.1941.10620207. ISSN 2326-7240 . Retrieved 2022-10-29. Male nude swim at school approved 1935". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. 1935-09-15. p.2 . Retrieved 2022-09-17. Terry's first geographic adventure was out to the sand dunes just north of Palm Springs. You can see them just off the highway to your right, as you enter from Los Angeles, this little pile of sand as if the mountain split a seam. Terry grabbed his camera, a model, and 15 yards of fabric he just happened to have lying around, and set out on his adventure. The wind makes a wonderful dance partner and Terry snapped shots capturing the beauty created by model, fabric, and wind. Sometimes the wind blows off the mountain, sometimes it blows into the mountain, and on those most special of days, it blows straight up to the sky! Canada men swimming nude at the YMCA until women joined". The Leader-Post. Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. 1977-09-29. p.24 . Retrieved 2022-09-17.

It now represents more than 67 photographers from 27 countries - including China, India, Iran, Poland, Russia and Turkey where gay rights are repressed and queer lives under constant threat. a b "Boys Will Continue to Swim Nude at Menasha High Pool". Appleton Post Crescent (82ed.). Menasha, Wisconsin. 1961-11-14. p.13 . Retrieved 2022-10-17. Johnson, Campbell C. (1940). "Negro Youth and the Educational Program of the Y.M.C.A." The Journal of Negro Education. 9 (3): 354–362. doi: 10.2307/2292606. ISSN 0022-2984. JSTOR 2292606 . Retrieved 2023-03-18. Although some advantages in coeducational swim classes were recognized as early as 1941, the need to maintain pool water quality by insuring cleanliness of both swimmers and swimsuits dictated separate boys and girls classes and the banning of wool suits. Many pools had not been constructed for coeducation, having a single shower room. [30] In a survey of Indiana high schools in 1939, all boys swim classes were nude, while girls wore suits, 87% being cotton suits issued by the school. [31] Students bringing their own suits was discouraged, the institutions not having control of decontamination. [32] A 1947 survey of schools in northern Utah found more local variation. Only three of the six schools had pools. One allowed swimmers to wear their own suits, one supplied cotton suits. At the one that required nudity, the athletic director cited the problem of lint from suits clogging the pool filter. [33] :28–29 In 1963, as it had for 33 years, the city of Troy, New York continued its mandetory citywide program of swim classes for all students in grades 4-8 and 9-12; boys swimming nude. A letter to parents emphasized the importance of learning at least the basics of swimming for survival in an emergency. [34] The October 16, 1950 Life magazine published a photograph of boys swimming together in the indoor pool of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois; the caption did not mention they were naked. [35] Girls' classes [ edit ] Plan Swimming Classes at the High School". Sheboygan Press. October 8, 1930. p.17 . Retrieved 2023-07-11.Gage, Stephen (1926). "Swimming Pools and Other Public Bathing Places". American Journal of Public Health. 16 (12): 1186–1201. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.16.12.1186. PMC 1321491. PMID 18012021. Horwood, M. P.; Gould, B. S.; Shwachman, H. (1933). "Indices of the Sanitary Quality of Swimming Pool Waters". Journal - American Water Works Association. 25 (1): 124–135. doi: 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1933.tb18220.x. ISSN 0003-150X . Retrieved 2022-09-13.

Celebrate the pool parties of Southern California with these gorgeous painterly abstractions by Terry Hastings. Taylor, Wayne G (1947). A Survey of the Requirements in Physical Education for Boys in Region One of the Utah State Athletic Association (Thesis). Utah State University. Now Quakers are not generally nudists. Richard Nixon was a Quaker and he wore clothes in public. James Dean was a Quaker and he wore clothes, too. But at this summer camp, the free-spirited tradition had evolved over the years to include more freedoms than most of us consider normal. Well, I was a modest boy and I wasn't having any of this nudist nonsense. At the beginning of the summer, there was one other boy who insisted on remaining clothed, even at swim time. But he caved, and by August, I was the only boy willful and stubborn enough to wear clothes all the time. I thought these people were crazy. And if the skinny-dipping and nude sports hadn't been enough to drive me away, then I surely would have made up my mind after sneaking out of my bunk on the very last night and finding my counselors--some of them well into their old age--square dancing in their birthday suits. Swimming Pool to be Open to Public on Monday". Sheboygan Press. July 8, 1926. p.3 . Retrieved 2023-07-11.In the Fall of 2009 Terry moved to Palm Springs from Minneapolis. He was immediately taken with his surroundings both geographical and societal. He found this place to be a dichotomy of people: one set basking in a verdant oasis and the other set struggling in a city that was barren and dry.