Ilsley Silias Boone (18791968) was a charismatic speaker, a powerful organizer, a magazine publisher and the founding father of the American Sunbathing Association (ASA)later reorganized as the
American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR). As a publisher he distributed the first nudist magazine in the United States. That publication eventually led to a challenge to the U.S. Postal Service's ban against sending obscene materials through the mail. Boone took his challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court which struck down the ban.
Early life
Ilsley was born to Silas Ilsley Boone (18461900) and Agnes Ferris Turnbull Eldridge (18491940) in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
,
New York in 1879. Little is known of Boone's early life, other than that he lived in Brooklyn with his two brothers and two sisters. In 1904 he graduated from
Brown University and married Alice M. Barragar. Together they had two children: a daughter, Agnes Margaret Boone, and a son, Frederick Eldredge Boone. They soon moved to
Newton, Massachusetts, where he obtained a
divinity degree from
Newton Theological Institute. Originally
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
as a
Baptist
Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
, he served as the pastor of the Baptist church in
Ipswich, Massachusetts, serving from October, 1904, to August, 1907. In 1921 Boone became pastor of the Ponds Reformed Church (
Dutch Reformed) in
Oakland, New Jersey. In the mid-1920s, he developed the concept of visual education under contract with the New York City Public School System. With the onset of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, the city canceled Boone's contract, but his interest in education continued, serving with the Oakland Public School system. During this period he divorced his first wife and married his
paternal first cousin, Ella Murray "Mae" Boone. They had three children: Bradford Ilsley Boone, Nancy Adeline Boone, and Berton Maxfield Boone.
Nudist activism
In 1930
Kurt Barthel had formed The American League for Physical Culture (ALPC), America's first
nudist organization. The following year Boone became interested in naturism and was appointed as the ALPC Executive Secretary. Soon after, Barthel asked him to take his place as President of the ALPC, the position which Boone held for 20 years until August, 1952. (The organization was by then called The American Sunbathing Association.) He traveled to Germany in the early 1930s to visit ''Freilichtpark'' (Free-Light Park) near
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, the world's first
naturist resort, which had opened nearly three decades earlier. During this time he also became a member of both the New York and Royal
Microscopy Societies.
In 1936 Boone opened "Sunshine Park" in the
Mays Landing section of
Hamilton Township, New Jersey (near
Atlantic City), and established the national headquarters of the American Sunbathing Association there. As a faithful adherent to Barthel's original ideals and behavior guidelines, "Uncle Danny" advocated the development of new nudist clubs, often leading legal challenges fighting local officials trying to block nudist centers in their area. He encouraged regimens of
calisthenics,
abstinence
Abstinence is the practice of self-enforced restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, but it can also mean abstinence from alcohol (drug), ...
(alcohol), complete nudity regardless of the weather, and
vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
for all members and their guests. This was in addition to his overall beliefs of healthful benefits derived from the combination of nudity, sunbathing, and exercise. In 1965 the park was purchased by psychologist Oliver York for $120,000.
It continued for another two decades until health violations of the aging buildings forced its closure by the city.
Later years
Boone's second wife died in 1960 and he became a widower for the last eight years of his life. Due to the proliferation of more successful competing nudist and adult publications, his Sunshine Publishing Company went out of business in 1963. Nearly broke, Boone lived his last years in the home of National Nudist Council member Edith Church, where he died on
Thanksgiving Day, 1968, in
Whitehouse, Ohio.
at age 89. His magazine ''Sunshine & Health'' continued under another publisher into the 1980s, making it the longest published nudist magazine in America.
Publications
Following his ordination, Boone served a number of pastorates and wrote a number of books dealing with the divine, the most notable being ''The Conquering Christ''. By 1933, however, Boone's interest in nudism led to publishing the first American nudist magazine, ''
The Nudist'' (with
Henry S. Huntington as its editor
) which later became ''Sunshine & Health'', published by his Sunshine Publishing Company. Even with the genitalia airbrushed out of the photos of nudists, the
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
decided the materials were obscene and could not be distributed through the U.S. mail. Boone challenged the decision and took his case all the way to the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
.
In 1958, he ultimately won the right to distribute uncensored nudist materials through the mail. The victory enabled not only legitimate nudist magazines and men's magazines to feature full frontal nudity (including
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefner (April 9, 1926 – September 27, 2017) was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of ''Playboy'' magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles. Hefner extended the ''Playboy ...
's
Playboy Magazine), but also unintentionally helped make possible the later oncoming flood of explicit adult publications during the 1960s
sexual revolution.
Books
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Periodicals
* ''College Hill Verse'': Being selections from student publications of
Brown University 1894-1904 (editor, 1904)
* ''
The Nudist'' (later known as ''Sunshine & Health'') (1933-1963)
See also
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Christian naturism
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Clothes free organizations
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Naturism
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Public nudity
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Skinny dipping
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Notes
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boone, Ilsley
1879 births
1968 deaths
American activists
American naturists
People from Hamilton Township, Atlantic County, New Jersey
Social nudity advocates
Brown University alumni