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Whether strolling old-school boardwalks or flaunting decade-defining fashion, there is something romantic about beach-goers from years past. Maybe it’s just the nostalgia, or longing to gather on warm sunny beaches again. Either way, transport yourself to simpler times with these retro photographs of sunbathers and swimmers.
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A boy plays in the waves at Rockaway Beach during a heat wave in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
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VFilm actor Kirk Douglas and the Indian actress Mehtab rest at the Lido beach in 1953 during the Venice Film Festival.
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A dancer drinks from a coconut during a drummers' jam session in Venice Beach.
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A couple sunbathes at Rockaway Beach during a heat wave on July 17, 2013 in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
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Two men build a turtle sand sculpture at Santa Monica Beach in Santa Monica, California, as crowds escape a heat wave.
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A girl sits in a wading pool at Santa Monica beach in Santa Monica, California, as crowds escape a heat wave.
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A boy plays in the water at Ocean Beach on June 21, 2011, in San Francisco on the first day of summer as the San Francisco Bay Area experiences its first heat wave of the season.
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A young boy cools off in shallow water at Crissy Fields in San Francisco.
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A group of young boys play in the water at Crissy Fields in San Francisco.
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Ice cream vendors push their carts on a beach along Lake Michigan July 24, 2005, in Chicago as extreme hot weather hits.
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An antique photograph of the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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An antique photograph of the seaside town of Southport, England.
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An antique photograph of the seaside town of Hastings, England.
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An antique photograph of the seaside town of Lowestoft, England.
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Bathers at a U.S. beach, circa the 1950s.
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A woman wearing a bathing suit, sitting by a wall on a U.S. beach, circa the 1930s.
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People walking on a promenade by a seashore.
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A crowd of people on a beach.
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A group of surfers on a beach with a Ford Mustang.
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Women of the Jehovah's Witness faith community await their baptism on Orchard Beach in New York City in 1958.
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A man and woman lying on their fronts on the beach, circa 1960.
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Kids swimming in the Adriatic Sea on the beach of Rimini, one of the popular seaside resorts on the Adriatic coast in the ‘60s.
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The north beach in the East Frisian Islands in Lower Saxony, Germany, with the famous colorful Borkum beach tents.
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An archival photograph of people lining up and diving off a swimming pier on a small beach at a lake in the U.S. in 1965.
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A child and her mother picking up shells.
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A vintage photograph of two men and a young boy at a beach on the Pacific Ocean in 1934.
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A vintage 19th-century photomontage of women at the beach being surrounded by seagulls.
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A vintage photograph of three young girls paddling in the sea during the Edwardian period.
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A pebbly beach does not deter a group of sunbathers from their fun.
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A vintage photograph of an Edwardian era family on a day out at the seaside in Knokke, Belgium.
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An Atlantic City, New Jersey, beach in 1893.
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A vintage photograph of two Edwardian era children playing in the sand at the seaside in Knokke, Belgium.
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A vintage photograph of a man looking through a telescope sometime during the late Victorian or early Edwardian period.
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Tourists on Waikiki Beach in Oahu, Hawaii.
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A man and woman on a sailboat sometime in the 1950s.
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Young friends posing and looking at the camera on the beach in Liguria, Italy, in the 1930s.
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A seaside tourist complex.
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A crowd of people walking along a beach.
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A young couple under their beach umbrella sometime in the 1950s. Not done reminiscing the ‘50s? Check out these fashions that defined the decade.
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Anthony Biddle supports the 186-pound weight of Will Lambert standing on his stomach on the beach at Palm Beach, Florida.
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Visitors gather on a Coney Island pier September 2, 2001, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
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Jenny Chen (L), Fanny Ya (C) and Chen Lin (R) play in the waves on Coney Island beach May 27, 2002, in Brooklyn, New York.
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Travis Sasser, 10, jumps over a wave as Corey Gamble, 13, stands by on Coney Island beach May 27, 2002, in Brooklyn, New York.
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Two beach-goers wade into Lake Michigan along Chicago''s lakefront July 24, 2001, as a lifeguard keeps watch from her boat.