Galveston, TX – The Bryan Museum is thrilled to announce a special exhibition 140 years in the making.

Due to the pandemic, The Bryan Museum was unable to display the Styling by the Sea exhibition in 2020. Last summer, the Museum launched an online version of the exhibition to great fanfare in its place. On Saturday, May 15, The Bryan Museum will finally unveil the exhibition to the public. Its central theme of the history of swimwear from 1880 through the present day couldn’t have come at a better time. It will be difficult to experience the exhibit and leave without a smile on your face or recalling a heartwarming memory of days gone by at the beach.

Central questions, such as “Why is it called a Bathing Suit?” to“How did the beach towel ever come to be? will be answered. Enjoy a unique selection of swimwear, sunglasses, beach bags, totes, hats, sandals, and other accessories through which vacationers and residents expressed their personal sense of style on our Gulf shore since the dawn of Galveston as a resort community in the 19th and 20thcentury.

The exhibition is interactive in which Museum guests can take a “selfie” in a rolling cart from the 1920s to using the reemergent popularity of QR codes to learn more about certain historic moments in swimwear history. This summer, while visiting Galveston beaches, come to The Bryan Museum and enjoy decades of fascinating beach fashion while learning why world events caused the creation of the bikini. The exhibition runs through August 21, 2021.

This program is made possible with funding from Humanities Texas and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the federal CARES Act.