Victorian Beach Bathing Etiquette

 “As to the hose, they are indeed; a necessary adjunct to the bathing suit, if you would be modestly and properly clad...” Appropriate Victorian and Edwardian era beach costumes for women (as exhibited above) required women wear stockings for sea bathing in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s: Ever kindly and given to loaning wisdom from her store, the charitable and impassioned authoress made haste to warn the puzzled maidens against any sockless tempting of Neptune. 

Questions on Sea Bathing Etiquette

Miss Libbey is an authoress. She is also an authority on the proprieties of sea bathing. It appears that “Two Young Girls,” having heard of Laura Jean as one freighted down with seashore etiquette, wrote to Miss Libbey, asking, “should young girls go bathing with male escorts?” and, likewise, “Would it be considered vulgar to go into the surf without stockings?” Ever kindly and given to loaning wisdom from her store, the charitable and impassioned authoress made haste to warn the puzzled maidens against any sockless tempting of Neptune. 

Said she in one of her finest passages: “I feel bound to advise any girl reader to abstain from bathing in company of lover, friend or male acquaintance on general principles. In the first place, even a pronounced beauty can and often does look hideous in the water. A man sees her at her worst, which is not advisable, and he never forgets the ludicrous picture she makes.” In another outburst, founded no doubt upon her own investigation beside the sobbing deep, she cried out in this fashion: 

“You would not permit a man to put his arms about you waking along the public thoroughfare. Why accord him that privilege in the surf? ‘Ah,’ you answer, ‘it is different in the water. There is danger in those great big waves that come booming in, and I am glad to have him to cling to, I'm sure.’ You have no business to be where there is danger, my dear. As to the hose, they are indeed; a necessary adjunct to the bathing suit, if you would be modestly and properly clad. 

“Exuberance of spirits is all very well among a number of young girls disporting among the waves (here we bow to an old friend in the matter of phrases), but when gentlemen are present take great care not to become boisterous, for they will most assuredly take their cut as to how they shall behave from you. Summer is very delightful and one of its choicest pleasures is the sea bath, invigorating alike to mind and body, but great care should be observed that it be not abused.” – Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1900

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Edwardian Beach Etiquette

“The city fathers wish to discourage the theory that Long Beach can be turned over to all breaches of decorum, and they make it a punishable misdemeanor for bathers to appear in bathing costume within certain limits of the city, practically confining bathers to the beaches.” – Collegiate Break Fun at Long Beach, 1905

 Tourists Breaching Beach City Decorum 

The City Council has wrought some more changes calculated to transform the appearance of Long Beach. It bears strongly upon etiquette and that which made necessary the passage of the ordinances leaves room for reflection on the social training of some of the city’s guests. “Thou Shalt not parade up and down the streets of this seaside metropolis in bathing suits.” is the latest decree and an expanded force of police officers declares that it will carry out to the letter the meaning of the ordinance. The city fathers wish to discourage the theory that Long Beach can be turned over to all breaches of decorum, and they make it a punishable misdemeanor for bathers to appear in bathing costume within certain limits of the city, practically confining bathers to the beaches. 

It has been the custom during the years gone by, when Long Beach belonged to the surf instead of the surf to Long Beach, for bathers to invade the streets of the place en masse. A ban is put on fish poles also by the new ordinance. It is declared unlawful for fishermen to walk through the streets with their fish poles, unless they carry sectional poles, which have been disjointed, with the Joints banded together, with lines free of treacherous hooks. In the same breath the fathers warn dogs to stay off the streets and impose orders on police officers to prescribe limits for all canines, which do not include the pleasure pier, the pavilion or any of the most thickly settled streets.– Los Angeles Herald, 1902

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia