Nude Swimming in the North

It is well known that the modern naturist/nudist movement had its origins in Germany in the 19^th century.  However, the Germans had nothing to teach their northern neighbors.  The Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Finns all had their particular brand of naturism well entrenched, certainly when it came to aquatic activities. Let’s examine the photographic evidence.

Topic 1 Old Swedes

Early 20th century Swedish photos have been included in these posts right from the start. They have included floating bathhouse and swimming lesson pictures.  Sweden’s Central Association for the Promotion of Sports has maintained a picture archive since 1897. The images below are from that collection.  They roughly span a period from 1900 to 1920.

This trio of shots is from 1909 and are clearly labeled as “swimming school” pictures. You will note that the Swedes are considerably less troubled about the prospect of showing pre-pubescent boys as frontal nudes than some of their American counterparts. No attempt is being made to pose the participants to keep the male appointments out of sight.

As an aside, these scenes apparently took place in a rather elaborate floating bathhouse.

This time-honored method of “dry” swimming instruction was depicted in other postings of this website.  For what it’s worth, the instances where it appeared in photographs were exclusively European (more specifically, Swedish).

This is one of a series of similar images from 1909 apparently shot minutes apart.  I chose this one because of the obviousness of the nudity of the participants. In the other photos, the two boys on the left are less demonstrative posed.

The capstone of the 1909 images is this class pic. Although formal, the participants were allowed to free style their personal presentations.   Boys will be boys.

We’ve moved on to 1917 and what appears to be a different venue.  The activity seems to be different, too.  Is this a water ballet? The one constant is that the kids are unencumbered by suits and the photographer is unflinching in capturing that fact.

This undated photo shows a still different facility. The well-turned-out adult supervisor seems dressed for success rather than lifesaving. The full frontals on the deck are curiously interspersed with fully dressed on lookers. Cold day?

We’ve moved indoors for another undated photo. It is likely that we’re now in the 1930’s. I’ve seen those types of flotation devices used in other images from that period. Note that this a more decorous shot with the boys’ legs primly crossed. Buns are still on the menu, though. You have to love the fully dressed instructor on his hands and knees peering over the edge of the pool at his charges.

This photo was taken in Uppsala, Sweden in 1939. Here we have more naked boys receiving instruction using flotation belts but the instruction technique seems more hands-on.  It’s easy to deduce what the adults in the pool are doing but the guy in the dress suit with the long cane is another matter.

At first glance, this undated photo looks like a formal shot of some young adult club members who donned towels for the occasion (except for the one guy on the far right who simply hid his package behind one of his fellows).  However, that does not explain the four or so spectral images on the left side. I’m wondering if they were club members who did not cover up because they thought they were out of range of the shot.  Did the photographer attempt a clumsy darkroom alteration to obliterate the offending nudes?

The city of Vasteras, Sweden maintains an archive of historic photos that is made available through Digital Museum (previously cited). These images are from a free swim event that took place in 1956. It is clear that the boys are enjoying their recreation free of swim suits.  Based on some contemporary film I saw, the floats that they are sharing the pool with are swimming instructional aids.  They can be attached to the hands with elastic bands to keep the front end afloat while the boy propels himself with kicking alone.

Now that we’ve considered boys’ swimming lessons and the posh indoor club pools, let’s look at another side of the Swedish aquatic scene of yesteryear: the Skeppsholmen bathhouse.  It was located on Skeppsholmen island just offshore of Stockholm that was used as a naval shipyard for over a century.  Around 1840 (right, quite a while back) they built a floating bathhouse on the eastern shore because Swedish sailors were required to bathe regularly. Given Sweden’s climate, this must have been a bracing experience for much of the year. In 1870 they added a warm (indoor) bathhouse.

The pictures below are from around 1905.

As can be seen from the presence of ships’ masts in the background, the bathhouse was proximate to the naval operations with the attendant downsides to that.  The outdoor bath was closed in 1923 because of persistent water contamination.

Around 1904, a Swedish painter named Eugene Jansson gained permission to use the bathing facility for his on-going health issues. He found the presence of so much naked male flesh inspiring and commenced doing a series of paintings of what he saw. One is shown below.

Leaving aside the idealized depictions of the Swedish sailors’ bodies, I find the slanted diving board, which appears in a couple of the photos above, interesting.  Modern spring boards were still several decades into the future.  I suggest that upward slanted mounting of this board probably provided a lot of flexure. It probably required some practice to use it without courting injury.

Topic 2 Little Danes

Let’s move onto Denmark to see how they dealt with boys’ aquatic recreation.  From the photographic evidence in hand, the boys of Denmark apparently found their own swimming opportunities in the outdoors. They seem to favor old canals and weren’t too fussed about who might be around when they did their skinny dipping. 

This 1910 image is from the city archive of Copenhagen, as shown by the label in the lower right. The proximity of occupied buildings and a public footpath is no deterrent to the boys’ getting naked and having a little fun.

This 1906 image is from Frederiksberg, a neighboring municipality to Copenhagen.

These twin images are slightly damaged and are not identical.  The one on the right is cropped a little closer, squeezing out the standing figure.  I believe these are the remnants of a stereo viewer slide.  Without getting too detailed, pictures are taken with a binocular camera, yielding two images slightly offset from one another.  When printed on heavy stock and viewed with a binocular device, the scene appears in 3D.  These types of devices were popular beginning in the late 19^th century.  It was the ancestor of many stereo picture devices down through the years.

Again, the boys are utilizing a canal in proximity to frequented areas.

This undated image from the Copenhagen Museum shows what happens when you skinny dip in a populated area – you draw an audience.  Besides the boy spectators on the right who are reacting to the camera, there appears to be at least two females taking in the sights. Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

Topic 3: Norway

We complete our survey of old Nordic (nude) swimming practices with these images.

One of the boys appears to be performing a miracle by walking on the water.  He seems to appreciate the uniqueness of his situation as he displays a full frontal.  This undated (some indications suggest it could be as late as 1930) photo is from the National Museum of Norway in Oslo. This outdoor venue is called Hovedøen bad.

Same incident recorded within a minute or so of the previous image.

This image carries a date range of 1917-25. It also is from Hovedøen, but does not have the designation “bad” (bath).  I suspect the structure in the background is the site of the previous two photos. This is apparently an undeveloped spot near the facility.

This is another Norwegian image from the same source but may be a different venue (Hovedøya bad).  This one carries a date of 1930. Two unusual features are the one boy in a baggy bathing suit that suggests he may be developed beyond his years and the presence of an adult slightly to the left of center.  The latter appears to be leaning over a boy in some mode of assistance.  The question is: is he wearing a suit or not?

Like the first two images, this scene is occurring in some sort of dedicated recreational area in a natural body of open water.  There appears to be poles and/or fencing to delineate boundaries between various areas or perhaps “no go” zones.

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