Members of the Russian Red Army Choir perform at Water Front Theatre in Beirut September 13, 2014. (Photo by Jamal Saidi/Reuters)

A woman offers prayers by a road as a rickshaw puller transports passengers in Kolkata October 28, 2014. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

A model walks the runway at the annual Victoria's Secret fashion show at Earls Court on December 2, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)

With temperatures soaring and summer well underway, countless Americans will be spending their Independence Day weekend at the beach. Here we revisit some classic images from the turn-of-the-century to the 1930's of vacations by the sea, from Coney Island to Santa Monica.

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Model Kendall Jenner presents a creation during the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, November 30, 2016. The pulse-quickening, celebrity-filled catwalk event of the year: the Victoria's Secret fashion show takes place in Paris with performances from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. (Photo by Charles Platiau/Reuters)

Girls dressed in traditional costumes run as men throw water on them as part of Easter celebrations during a presentation to the media in Mezokovesd, Hungary, April 13, 2017. (Photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters)

Aerobatic aircrafts fly during a performance at the Airshow Zhengzhou 2017 in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province on April 27, 2017. The 5-day air show kicked off in Zhengzhou on Thursday, aiming to build a general aviation gathering center for business and communications. (Photo by Li An/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire)