October 1942. "Health measures for low indoor temperatures. Planning to spend a winter evening at home? Better dress for it the way these attractive government workers do, for homes will be kept to 65 degrees this year due to Federal fuel oil limitation orders. Slacks and warm robes mean comfort under lower temper­atures." Photo by Albert Freeman, Office of War Information. View full size.

San Francisco, 1935. "Auto show. Model and Oldsmobile at General Motors display." 8x10 inch nitrate negative, late of the Wyland Stanley and Marilyn Blaisdell collections. View full size.

May 1958. "Actress Mary Ure wearing silver lamé, thigh-high leg covering with attached heels." The record is Norgine Laboratories' 78 rpm pressing of Marin Marais's "Tableau of a Bladder Operation." Color transparency from the Look magazine assignment "For Women Only: Crazy With the Heat." View full size.

May 1950. "University of Notre Dame football quarterback Bob Williams posed as if signing autographs for a group of college women." 3x4 inch Kodachrome transparency by Frank Bauman for the Look magazine assignment "Grantland Rice's Football Forecast for 1950." View full size.

        "Nothing for me, thanks."

October 1942. "Girl worker at lunch also absorbing California sunshine, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach." Kodachrome transparency by Alfred Palmer for the Office of War Information. View full size.

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1954. "Louise Mullin" is all it says here. Regardless, we seem to have a quorum. Let the meeting come to order! 4x5 inch acetate negative from the Shorpy News Photo Archive. View full size.

May 1942. "Southington, Connecticut. A girl." Medium format nitrate negative by Fenno Jacobs for the Office of War Information. View full size.

July 26, 1919. Washington, D.C. "Bathing beach parade at Tidal Basin." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.

        JULY 27 -- While more than 5,000 persons clambered to each other's shoulders and to roofs of nearby buildings to view the Annette Kellermanns at the first annual beach parade at the Tidal Basin yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Audrey O'Connor, 620 Maryland avenue southwest, was proclaimed by the judges as Washington's most beautiful girl in a bathing suit. Mrs. O'Connor wore a blue and orange jumper, blue cap and orange tights. Miss Dot Buckley, 1250 Tenth street northwest, received honorable mention in the contest. Her suit was a creation in red, white and blue.
        First prize in the costume contest was awarded Mrs. Grace Fleishman, 5 Iowa circle, who wore a white silk suit with black and white border and a white silk hat. Miss Muriel Gibbs, costumed as Miss Liberty in stars and stripes, received honorable mention. Silver loving cups were awarded to the winners of both the beauty and the costume contests.
        Following the parade of the score or more of beauties between cheering crowds of bathing beach fans, the former faced half a dozen movie machines and a battery of press cameras. Later one of the winners obligingly did a modified "shimmy dance" for the movie men.

Columbus, Georgia, circa 1960, and that's all we know. If you know these ladies, or are one of them yourself, speak up. 4x5 inch acetate negative. View full size.

June 1943. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "Miss Natalie O'Donald, service-station attendant at the Atlantic Refining Company garages." Medium-format negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.

Los Angeles, 1957. "Trailer Life model." A model just waiting to get hitched? 5x7 acetate negative by Watson from the News Photo Archive. View full size.

May 3, 1926. "Apple blossoms at Winchester, Virginia." Nature's palette bursting forth in a riotous rainbow of grays. 5x7 inch glass negative. View full size.

Newport Beach, California. "Balboa Bathing Parade, 1925." Three-panel gelatin silver print by Miles F. Weaver (1879-1932). View full panorama.

June 25, 1921. Washington, D.C. "Bathing beach costume contest." The ladies last glimpsed here, an array of lesser lights orbiting the transcendently beautiful Iola Swinnerton, second from left with the Krazy Kat doll. View full size.

The West Coast has the sunshine
And the girls all get so tanned ...

Huntington Beach, California. "Bathing Beauty Pageant, 1925." Three-panel gelatin silver print by Miles F. Weaver (1879-1932). View full panorama.