A sepia photograph of a summer beach at Highland Beach around 1900. A tall wooden pavilion built on a timber-piled sea wall runs down the right side of the frame; the upper deck is thatched and crowded with figures in white summer dress. On the beach below, dozens of figures in dark woolen bathing suits and long skirts stand on the sand or wade in the surf; a matron holds a dark parasol at bottom-right; a small beach cart sits at center; the ocean stretches to a flat horizon at the left.

Ocean bathing at Highland Beach, ca. 1900

ca. 1900

Highland Beach, foot of Sandy Hook

A summer afternoon on the ocean side of the Sandlass boardwalk. The elevated pavilion runs down the right side of the frame on a timber-piled sea wall; men and women crowd the upper deck under a thatched sun-cover. On the beach below, bathers in the head-to-knee woolen suits and stockings of the period — a Gibson-girl matron under a black parasol at bottom-right, a small child, boys in striped one-pieces, women with long dark bathing skirts wading knee- deep in the surf. A single beach cart at center. This is the Highland Beach that the Sandlass Improvement Company sold as ocean bathing an hour from Manhattan: the pavilion, the sea wall, the crowd, and the cold Atlantic beyond.

The photograph and a painterly reinterpretation

A painterly color reinterpretation of a turn-of-century beach scene. On the left, deep blue Atlantic surf rolls in against a bright sand shore; small figures in dark blue bathing dress wade in the water; children play at the water's edge. In the middle, dozens of Edwardian figures in white shirts, blue dresses, and dark trousers sit on the sand or walk along it; a small beach cart occupies the center. On the right, a long thatched-roof pavilion built on a heavy timber-piled sea wall runs down the frame; visitors line the upper railings under sun-hats. A matron with a dark blue paisley parasol occupies the near foreground beside a bench of seated women in white.

Item record

Title: Ocean bathing at Highland Beach, ca. 1900
Date: ca. 1900
Source: Late 19th / early 20th-century photograph · scan from the New York Public Library
Contributor: The New York Public Library
Rights: Public domain (over 100 years old)
Slug: ocean-bathing-highland-beach

Verification: unverified.

Cite this item

Ocean bathing at Highland Beach, ca. 1900 (ca. 1900). Late 19th / early 20th-century photograph · scan from the New York Public Library The Highlands History Project, https://history.abovethehook.com/archive/ocean-bathing-highland-beach/.