Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent

Sun protection

A women in a long dress and a young child sitting on a rock, with a parasol protecting them from the sun.

A woman and a young girl in the shade of a parasol.

© Société d’histoire et de généalogie de Rivière-du-Loup, digital coll., F0056/1/174.

Before sunglasses and sunscreen, parasols and wide-brimmed hats were used as protection against the harmful effects of the sun. People weren’t worried about skin cancer back then, just sunburn. The members of high society tended to keep their skin white, since this distinguished them from the peasants who were tanned from working in the sun. 

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