With only a few Summer Fridays left, we'll be exploring Coney Island every Friday this month by showcasing artworks depicting our local seaside escape.
Pictured here is a work by Irving Underhill, a commercial photographer who helped spread the image of Coney Island as a capital of leisure—one accessible to families with a small disposable income and only one day of the week free. Interestingly enough, in the 18th-century, sea bathing was considered a fashionable spa experience reserved only for the upper-class. But, thanks to growing public transportation, it soon became associated with pleasure more than health and spread to the working classes in the 19th-century.
Irving Underhill (American, 1872-1960). Balmer's Great Atlantic Bathing and Swimming Baths, Coney Island, 1906. Gelatin dry glass plate negative Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum/Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection, 1996.164.8-B9616. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
