AA-2026-7064E9
On the image
A woman in a pale dotted day dress and dark belt stands ankle-deep in the surf, smiling at the camera with the composed pleasure of someone who has dressed for the occasion rather than for the water. Her hair is set and her posture is upright, the costume of a seaside visit in an era when the beach was a place to be seen rather than entered. Behind her the Atlantic is grey and modest, the kind of shore that promised a respectable afternoon and nothing more. She has positioned herself exactly where a photographer would want her—near enough to the water to make the point, far enough back to keep dry—the behavior of a woman who understood the contract between subject and camera.
The historian's note
The color transparency and styling place this in the early 1940s, a period when American beach visits were formal occasions governed by strict codes of dress and decorum. The woman's outfit—a printed cotton day dress with a structured belt—was standard seaside attire for women of the middle class, worn to the beach not as swimming dress but as proof of weekend leisure and respectable presentation. The restraint visible in her expression and posture reflects the social expectations of the period, in which the beach served as a venue for display and rest rather than athletic recreation. The photograph is marked with what appears to be a photographer's initial or mark, suggesting it was taken as part of a professional or semi-professional documentation, possibly for a family album or travel record.
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Visually related — by likeness
Woman at the Beach, 1940s. 1940–1947. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-7064E9. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/woman-at-the-beach-1940s.
@misc{aaAA20267064E9,
title = {Woman at the Beach, 1940s},
year = {1940–1947},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-7064E9},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/woman-at-the-beach-1940s}
}TY - ART TI - Woman at the Beach, 1940s PY - 1940–1947 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-7064E9 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/woman-at-the-beach-1940s ER -
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