Two elderly men smoking pipes of opium on a terrace in Korea. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images). August 1950

Samurai commiting seppuku (hara-kiri) in Japan, circa 1880. (Photo by adoc-photos/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Lady Boys of Bangkok have fun at the Meadows August 1, 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Dawlish Carnival 50th anniversary pram race featuring the famous Dawlish Black Swan in England on August 15, 2023. (Photo by nidpor/StockimoNews/Alamy Live News)

American singer Dove Cameron poses with the "Video for Good" award for “Breakfast” at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, U.S., September 12, 2023. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

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.

A spotless GWR (Great Western Railway) locomotive, the “Royal Sovereign” waiting to carry Queen Victoria's coffin. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). 28th January 1901

Runners high-five children cheering from the sidewalk as they begin the half marathon during the Ottawa Race Weekend, which returned from a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Ottawa, Canada on Sunday, May 29, 2022. (Photo by Canadian Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)