The Lincoln Park Board voted to open the city's first public bathing beach on July 1, 1895. The following day, more than three hundred working-class boys from Chicago's North Side, referred to by the papers as "Arabs," went swimming in the lake at the new public beach, most without swimming suits. The Park Commissioners quickly drafted a list of rules and regulations and initiated a plan to construct dressing rooms, lockers, and a pier for the bathers.

Photographer: Unknown
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-37325)