Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
August 1940. Provincetown, Massachusetts. "Beach scene at New Beach, the most popular beach near Provincetown. Regular bus service makes this beach easily available; lack of bath houses causes a great deal of picturesque dressing and undressing in and behind parked cars." 35mm nitrate negative by Edwin Rosskam for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
Sometime between the 20's and 1940, beach attire changed from being almost fully dressed to shorts and swimsuits that would pass on a modern beach. Wha' happened?
and this guy has to lie on top of ME !
Known more commonly today as Herring Cove Beach, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore and a not-legally-recognized clothing-optional recreation area (New'd Beach?). One of the few places on the East Coast where a person can sometimes observe whales from shore. Other alternative names for the beach are included in the second entry below.
Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People,
Federal Writers' Project, 1937.Provincetown
New Beach was a location a generation ago of a colony of fisherman's shacks known as Hell Town. Its white shelving sand and its safe exposure on Cape Cod Bay make it now the finest bathing beach in town.
Provincetown Banner, July 16, 1953.State Officials Coming For Dedication of New Bathhouse.
Dedication of the new bathhouse at New Beach is now scheduled for one o'clock, Monday afternoon, July 27, at which time Governor Herter, Senator Edward C. Stone and others are scheduled to speak. … In connection with the dedication Perry Strassburger, historian and antiquarian, has written to Governor Herter suggesting that the name "New Beach" be changed to "Provincetown Beach." He points out that older names were also used to designate the particular strip of shore. "Furdustrander" (wonder strands) was the name given 953 years ago in the Viking sagas while the same stretch was long and widely known as Herring Cove Beach when early Provincetown fishermen landed their catches there to have them hauled over the dunes and into town by horse and cart. The place was also called "Hell Town" at the time, but Mr. Strassburger doesn't mention this to the Governor. In the "Cape Cod Pilot" published in 1937 it was called "Outermost Beach" and in some Navy charts it is indicated as the "Measured Mile Beach." It has also been called the "Beach of Jewels" by artists because of the color of the pebbles found under the water at the beach.
I had to do a double-take - I just assumed the hand belonged to the lady sitting up, then realized this was impossible and then realized there were two arms. That'll teach me to take my time!
The man on the beach has been devoted to his siamese twin sister since they were born. He even paints her nails and buys her bling for her beautiful hands.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5