Edwardian Summer

Edward Linley Sambourne was a cartoonist and illustrator best remembered for his work for Punch magazine. He was also a keen amateur photographer. During the summer of 1906 when Great Britain was experiencing a heat wave Sambourne took his camera to the seaside towns of Brighton and Folkestone. Save for the woman on the steps of a bathing machine, it looks these women must have been burning up. They're even wearing jackets and corsets in the first image!

Earlier that summer he took the ferry over to Ostend in Belgium where he captured these women using a bathing machine. Speaking of which, these machines were quite popular during the Victorian era. You would enter the contraption on the beach, change into your bathing costume, and then the machine would be wheeled into the water (often pulled by a horse) where you would then descend the steps directly into the water without people on the beach seeing anything improper (like a woman's legs). They would be out of style by the 1920s. They sure do seem like a lot of work. But the women's outfits are adorable.

These and more wonderful photos can be found on the blog The Library Time Machine, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea here.