Cecil C. Bell (1906-1970)
East River Swimming 1937
lithograph, 11 1/4 x 14 7/8, signed; ed. 1/20,
UAM 1992.56

One area of imagery in which bodies might be displayed without fear was scenes of boys bathing. This sanitized image depicts slum kids swimming in the East River. While earlier images of this same subject had depicted the children naked, by the time Bell made his image social mores insisted that children swim in public in bathing suits