effjay wrote:
I am really surprised by these old swimming pictures. I remember one pool that allowed nude swimming when I was a kid but I'm pretty sure that it was single sex only.
After years of researching it, I can confirm that the instances when females of any age were allowed in the pool area while males were required to swim nude was
extremely rare, or at least the documentation that would confirm it. However, there are a number of instances reported and verified when females did in fact enter the pool area when the boys were nude, but in most instances it was because of a screw-up in scheduling the pool usage times between genders. One such instance was comically discussed in this YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/fD3WtrdkLME?si=WbZCy3IaGGF7e0ryAnother instance was when a high school, which had historically been male-only, was being opened the following year to females, and the girls went on a tour of the school. They took the girls into the pool area when the boys were swimming nude and apparently made no big deal out of it (although I'm guessing the lady in charge was embarrassed). Here it is:
I did find a number of posted columns/ads in the early part of the 20th century that implied there were Red Cross females that gave out certificates of completion on the final day of swim classes, and the ads expressly said that the boys would swim nude. And of course, there's the parents/family & friends event on the last day of swim classes that had families, and although it is implied the boys were nude, and, many have posted experiencing those events in the nude, I've yet to receive
definitive proof. Ergo, see the following news articles. One article specifically states boys taking the course would not wear swimsuits, and that there's a family night (including mothers and sisters) for watching the boys receive their certificates. Another photos shows the boys receiving the certificates wrapped in towels as they pose for the photo - note the swim instructor *is* wearing a swimsuit:
And of course, the low-budgets of school construction during that era meant the metal doors leading into the pool area were often misaligned and/or corroded providing gaps where girls could peek into the pool room from their own locker area - this was confirmed by actual postings of women on school discussion boards decades after the fact.
Regardless, there are recorded instances of females being present and being able to see the boys naked, such as discussed in this post about a 1939 Fernden Scouting Camp swim meet - you can see boys changes and completely nudein front of bleachers that had girls in them:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2707&hilit=Ferndon#p28213Lastly, as noted by the historic paintings from the post link below, females in the presence of nude boys swimming was more common in the UK and Europe during the early part of the 20th and much of the 19th centuries. However, it was not institutionalized insofar as cross-gender access to the pool area while boys swam nude.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4500&p=56569&hilit=1939#p56568Consequently, finding news articles, photos or film showing definitive proof that girls would watch naked boys swim in an institutional setting is harder than finding bigfoot. It's for that reason I've concluded it was very rare, at best.