This British ambrotype shows either a mother (right) with three daughters, or four sisters of disparate ages, posed on the exposed ground of a tidal estuary or river. Their fashions date to about 1870. The littlest girl is either carrying her bonnet or a bucket. Ann Longmore-Etheridge Collection.
Capocci & Sons, ice cream vendor, on the beach during a sunny, happy day at Bournemouth, Dorset, in the 1890s. The 1891 census enumerated Celestine Capocci, a 51-year-old ice cream maker born in Italy, and her large family living at 5 St. Michael’s Cottages, Holdenhurst, Bournemouth. Glass-plate negative courtesy James Morley (@photosofthepast). The identification of the ice cream vendor was made by EastMarple1, who is a collector and historian at Flickr.
Three elegant young adults on the deck of a ship or a seaside pier, circa 1900. Glass-Plate negative from the collection of James Morley.
On the beach at Trouville, Normandy, France, in September 1926. Paper print from the collection of James Morley.
Although posed in front of a backdrop, this girl was genuinely at the seaside, as Littlehampton, West Sussex, remains a vibrant holiday community to this day. Whilst photographers roamed the beach at Littlehampton and other resort towns, photography studios with their painted seaside scenes provided a second souvenir option. This Carte de Visite, taken circa 1900, is courtesy Caroline Leech.
“The most easily identified and most commonly found British tintype are the seaside portraits where families pose with buckets and spades in the sand or lounge in deck chairs on pebbled beaches with wrought iron piers in the background,” writes the administrator of the site British Tintypes. “The seaside might also be the one place where middle class people could safely and easily have a tintype made—as a fun, spur-of-the-moment amusement in keeping with other beach entertainment.” Tintype, mid-1890s, Ann Longmore-Etheridge Collection.
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Lyrics to “I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside,” written in 1907 by John A. Glover-Kind.
"Your Dying Charlotte" 
Although I did not comment on this at the time I read it (shortly after you published it), I wanted to tell you that this made me so glad that our clothing is not as restrictive as it used to be when we go to the beach (in warmer climes in particular) as it was over a hundred years ago! It also made me want to go back to Hawaii! That said, I think it is interesting how photographers used beach backdrops even then (probably other ones like famous city views or something as well)! I wonder if it is supposed to be a souvenir OR if it was used in areas where there was no beach and it was wishful thinking of those who would LIKE to be at the beach! It reminds me of those props that are used when you get your photo taken at one of those “Old West” re-creation photo studios, where often the background is made to look like an old bar or something. Really great combination of old photographs of a good array of different “beach” situations!
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