Bathing beauties emerge from a solarium, a tanning booth.
Photograph by Clifton R. Adams, National Geographic
In 1922, the Tidal Basin bathing beach in Washington, D.C., was open only to whites. Three years later, Congress banned swimming there due to concerns about pollution and pressure from African Americans to open a beach for their use.
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic
Women pose at a beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1929.
Photograph by Clifton R. Adams, National Geographic
Girls relax under the sun in their bathing suits and wraps in England in 1929.
Photograph by Bernard Wakeman, National Geographic
Local fishermen have dragged their boats away from the shore to make room for vacationers in Positano, Italy. The photo of sunbathers ran in a 1959 issue of National Geographic.
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
Beachgoers stake out their territory in a 1975 aerial view of Ocean City, Maryland.
Photograph by Emory Kristof, National Geographic Creative
Students catch some rays during spring break in Daytona Beach, Florida. The photo appeared in a 1973 issue of National Geographic.
Photograph by Jonathan Blair, National Geographic Creative
A man sunbathes in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1973.
Photograph by Jonathan Blair, National Geographic Creative
Women relax beside oil pumps on Padre Island, Texas. The photo appeared in a 1980 issue of National Geographic.
Photograph by Gordon Gahan, National Geographic Creative
People sunbathe in Yalta, Crimea, in the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, U.S.S.R.
Photograph by Bruno Barbey, Magnum/National Geographic
A family sunbathes near railroad tracks in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1991.
Photograph by Lynn Johnson, National Geographic Creative
A woman relaxes on a beach in Trujillo, Peru.
Photograph by William Albert Allard, National Geographic Creative
Goggles afford sunbathers eye protection on a beach by Narragansett Bay in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1995.
Photograph by Robb Kendrick, National Geographic Creative
Sunbathers relax on deck chairs.
Photograph by Paul Chesley, National Geographic Creative
A woman covers herself with pebbles and scraps of paper while tanning by the Black Sea in Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine.
Photograph by Ed Kashi, National Geographic
Families relax and play at a water park in Tiberias, Israel. This photo appeared in a 2010 issue of National Geographic.
Photograph by Paolo Pellegrin, National Geographic