In addition to doing a spot of outdoor swimming myself recently, I have been reading 'A Springboard in the Pond: An intimate history of the swimming pool' by Thomas A.P van Leeuwen.
It probably shouldn't come as a surprise, but the Dutch had initiated swimming instruction as early as 1767, under the direction of the well titled 'Netherlands Society to Prevent Drowning'. Members of the public though had to wait until the opening of the first 'bathing barge' in 1844 - anchored in the Amstel River by Dam Square. The picture above - slightly deviously - is neither Dutch nor 19th Century; but an instructional page of diving positions depicting the 'legendary' swimmer Annette Kellerman from Bernarr Macfadden's 'Encyclopedia of Physical Culture' (1928).
