AA-2026-ABC174
On the image
A man in a pool holds up his wrist to show a child in a yellow swim cap the watch strapped to his arm, a gesture that reads as instruction or reassurance during what appears to be a swimming lesson. The pool's concrete edge is flaking and patched with fresh paint, the kind of public facility that existed in every town before chlorine and liability made swimming a regulated event. He is demonstrating, with the confidence of someone who has done this before, that time is passing and that the child should be paying attention to it, as if a wristwatch in the water were a meaningful part of learning to swim. What the lesson was actually teaching—the watch, the smile, the casual poolside instruction—belongs entirely to a moment when a man could wade into municipal water with a child and nobody saw a problem in it.
Visually related — by likeness
Swimming Lesson, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-ABC174. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/swimming-lesson-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026ABC174,
title = {Swimming Lesson, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-ABC174},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/swimming-lesson-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Swimming Lesson, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-ABC174 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/swimming-lesson-1950s ER -
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