Public Swimming Pool, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Public Swimming Pool, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Public Swimming Pool, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-0DDCC4

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A diving instructor in a black swimsuit stands on the board above a rectangular public pool, one arm extended upward in the posture of someone about to demonstrate a dive for a group of children in the water below. The pool deck is furnished with blue-and-white striped umbrellas and lounge chairs in an arrangement that suggests organized instruction or recreation. The instructor wears a yellow swimming cap and holds the classical form—spine straight, arm raised—that was taught in public pools across America as the proper way to enter the water, back when diving instruction was a staple of summer recreation and someone adult enough to hold authority stood on the board not to perform, but to show the correct way. The building behind, painted a bright municipal blue and white, has the utilitarian solidity of a WPA-era public facility. In the background, a small aircraft visible against the sky suggests this pool may be near an airfield or within a town with airport proximity. The children float in the bright water wearing yellow swim caps, the uniform mark of organized group swimming, while the instructor maintains the rigid form that was supposed to prevent injury—a theory that, like many confident-seeming things in the 1950s, would eventually be revised.

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