Awash: Sensation, Infiltration, and the Bather in Queer and Trans Art

Images of bathers have recurred in art through the ages, and their depictions tell us something about attitudes toward human bodies, sex, gender, cleanliness, and much more.  

In his dissertation research, art historian Jay Buchanan, PhD candidate at Washington University in St. Louis, analyses images of bathers in bathtubs, swimming pools, beaches, and bathhouses to understand the changing cultural valence of bathing relevant to its sensual and sexual dimensions. Buchanan used several collections in the Hagley Library, including Ernest Dichter, The Fingerman Collection of Ephemera, William Pahlmann, and more, to recreate the material culture of bathing and swimming in the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States.  

In support of his research, Buchanan received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library.