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I suggest that social nudity was a thing in America long before 1927, as evidenced by the photographic and artistic record. It just was not organized, formalized, or very much publicized, let alone formally legalized. In Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, Russia, France and Spain, nude bathing, whether at the waterfront, sauna or home was practiced and documented for over five hundred years before our times. My guess is that undocumented social nudity, without fear or shame, occurred long before that.
In some cases, social nudity was segregated by sex, but not often enough for it to be mandatory. Common variations of age, gender, circumstance and clothing prohibit us from making any sweeping generalizations about social nudity prior to the advent of organized and formalized social nudism in either Europe or the Americas.
The point was it was the first "documented" use of the term "clothing optional." It was not called that to imply nudity before that.
same sex (I think it was, there were stories) nude sunbathing at the Solarium in St Petersburg FL started in 1926, 3.5 years before organized nudism came to USA). Bernarr MacFadden's Physical Culture City dates back to the turn of the 19th Century but what that meant in terms of what they actually did, IDK.....Anders Zorn painted my great great aunt Alma on a rock in Sweden wearing only a bit of a frown at about the same time...You bathed in the bastu nude (sauna) but as far as I know in my family the guys did it and then the women did it, not together... and back in the guilded age I think being naked out of doors with picnics outside of England was not uncommon and is well documented in art.......but before that.....nude painting of female models was not common for a century
Somehow I got it into my feeble brain that you were writing about the date of social nudism in the US. Such was not the case. I sincerely apologize.
However, I do disagree with the last sentence in your reply, tho it seems to have been involuntarily truncated. So I won’t elaborate further except to say that if you look at my dated posts you might want to possibly change your mind.
As a long time Anders Zorn fan, I may have posted a painting of your gg aunt on Substack. I almost certainly have her in my unpublished archive. If your aunt ever wrote down her experiences as a model for Zorn, I would be delighted to read them. Any memoirs of those who have posed nude for artists are relatively difficult to retrieve.
Thanks Olaf for this wonderful history lesson! It’s so fun to learn about the history of social nudity, organized or not, both in America and beyond. I appreciate you, @The Nudist Archive, @Evan Nicks and many others for the stories you share on Substack. I can only imagine the hours/days/weeks of research each article requires. I hope the effort is as fun and rewarding for you as it is for me to read it 🙏🏻
Thanks for another great article. Bernarr Macfadden held a beauty / physique competition in NYC where the participants posed nude before the judges (with supposed holes cut through the privacy curtains for high paying viewers) prior to this open to the public swim. The Common Sense Club had Camps in every one of the 48 states by 1919. It was the first organized nudist effort in the USA. Informally, they are documented back to 1905. Social nakedness among friends and family, including descriptions of nude hiking, camping, doing board games indoors, and sun, air, and surf bathing were written about in 1904 by John Russell Coryell. In 1902 “Clothed With The Sun” was the newspaper of the Home community in Oregon where clothing was optional when swimming or sunning along Puget Sound. It is great to discover these early pioneers of social nakedness right here in America.
I suggest that social nudity was a thing in America long before 1927, as evidenced by the photographic and artistic record. It just was not organized, formalized, or very much publicized, let alone formally legalized. In Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, Russia, France and Spain, nude bathing, whether at the waterfront, sauna or home was practiced and documented for over five hundred years before our times. My guess is that undocumented social nudity, without fear or shame, occurred long before that.
In some cases, social nudity was segregated by sex, but not often enough for it to be mandatory. Common variations of age, gender, circumstance and clothing prohibit us from making any sweeping generalizations about social nudity prior to the advent of organized and formalized social nudism in either Europe or the Americas.
The point was it was the first "documented" use of the term "clothing optional." It was not called that to imply nudity before that.
same sex (I think it was, there were stories) nude sunbathing at the Solarium in St Petersburg FL started in 1926, 3.5 years before organized nudism came to USA). Bernarr MacFadden's Physical Culture City dates back to the turn of the 19th Century but what that meant in terms of what they actually did, IDK.....Anders Zorn painted my great great aunt Alma on a rock in Sweden wearing only a bit of a frown at about the same time...You bathed in the bastu nude (sauna) but as far as I know in my family the guys did it and then the women did it, not together... and back in the guilded age I think being naked out of doors with picnics outside of England was not uncommon and is well documented in art.......but before that.....nude painting of female models was not common for a century
Somehow I got it into my feeble brain that you were writing about the date of social nudism in the US. Such was not the case. I sincerely apologize.
However, I do disagree with the last sentence in your reply, tho it seems to have been involuntarily truncated. So I won’t elaborate further except to say that if you look at my dated posts you might want to possibly change your mind.
As a long time Anders Zorn fan, I may have posted a painting of your gg aunt on Substack. I almost certainly have her in my unpublished archive. If your aunt ever wrote down her experiences as a model for Zorn, I would be delighted to read them. Any memoirs of those who have posed nude for artists are relatively difficult to retrieve.
Thanks Olaf for this wonderful history lesson! It’s so fun to learn about the history of social nudity, organized or not, both in America and beyond. I appreciate you, @The Nudist Archive, @Evan Nicks and many others for the stories you share on Substack. I can only imagine the hours/days/weeks of research each article requires. I hope the effort is as fun and rewarding for you as it is for me to read it 🙏🏻
Thanks for another great article. Bernarr Macfadden held a beauty / physique competition in NYC where the participants posed nude before the judges (with supposed holes cut through the privacy curtains for high paying viewers) prior to this open to the public swim. The Common Sense Club had Camps in every one of the 48 states by 1919. It was the first organized nudist effort in the USA. Informally, they are documented back to 1905. Social nakedness among friends and family, including descriptions of nude hiking, camping, doing board games indoors, and sun, air, and surf bathing were written about in 1904 by John Russell Coryell. In 1902 “Clothed With The Sun” was the newspaper of the Home community in Oregon where clothing was optional when swimming or sunning along Puget Sound. It is great to discover these early pioneers of social nakedness right here in America.