For centuries, a pale complexion was cultivated by the aristocracy to distinguish it from ruddy-faced common laborers.
Beginning in the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution shifted the workforce from farming to factories often in dense urban settings. The lack of sun exposure was found to cause health problems, notably the lack of Vitamin D that could result in the deforming bone disease rickets. The artificial ultraviolet light lamp was invented in the 1890s and used to prevent vitamin D deficiency in children and factory workers alike.
Such beneficial applications were touted in medical journal advertisements for the next fifty years (and artificial ultraviolet light therapy still plays a significant role in the treatment of psoriasis).
Miniature Portrait of Marie Antoinette
Joseph Ducreux
1769
The term “sun lamp” was coined in the 1920s, and Parisian fashion designer Coco Chanel helped popularize tanning as a mark of the leisure class who could vacation on the Riviera and did not toil in factories. Although an advertisement for a sun lamp in the 1930s would claim that it was safe for the whole family, by then it had been discovered that laboratory rats exposed to ultraviolet light bulbs developed skin cancer.
Hanovia Lamps for Light Therapy
Journal of the American Medical Association
December 14, 1929
“More information about the
GENERAL ELECTRIC SUNLAMP”
Advertisement by General Electric Company
Journal of the American Medical Association
December 14, 1929
See an excerpt of this advertisement below
“Turn on the July sun! Bask naked
In the summer sunshine from
The Eveready Sunshine Lamp”
Advertisement by the National Carbon Company, Inc. for Eveready Sunshine Lamp
National Geographic
Circa 1930
“Let it storm! Let wind and fain and snow and sleet prison us indoors as they will — we can nullify the cheerless, sunless days by turning on the summer sun indoors.
“This sounds like a miracle, but it is not. Science has placed the summer sun in our hands, for us to do with as we will. We turn on the summer sun by turning the switch on the Eveready Sunshine Lamp.
“From this lamp pour all the essential rays of summer sunshine. It is a miniature summer sun, man-made. In its grateful, cheery, health-increasing glow you can bathe your entire body, in the privacy of your bedroom…”
“An Important Contribution
to
Ultra-Violet Ray Treatment”
Advertisement by General Electric Company
Journal of the American Medical Association
December 14, 1929
“Experiments recently completed at the Albany Medical College have established the fact that ultra-violet ray treatment with the General Electric Sunlamp induces in the system a healthful supply of Vitamin ‘D.’
“Ultra-violet ray treatment in this form cured rickets in rats – the treatment proving completely successful.
“The General Electric Sunlamp has been designed as a practical and efficient means whereby doctors can have their patients follow out a prescribed ultra-violet ray treatment in their own homes.
“In radiation, the General Electric Sunlamp approximates natural midsummer sunshine, including the ultra-violet rays. So far as erythema is concerned-the effect of the General Electric Sunlamp used at a distance of three feet is practically the same as June noonday sunlight.”
“EVERYONE CAN HAVE
SUNSHINE
IN PLENTY”
Advertisement by General Electric Company for the G-E Sunlamp
Journal of the American Medical Association
October 11, 1930
“THE health-maintaining qualities of mid-summer sunshine are well-known. You are aware that ultra-violet in sunlight, combining with ergosterol in the skin develops Vitamin D potency. This assists the body to retain and utilize mineral salts secured in the diet
“In children, this stimulates growth and helps counteract rachitic tendencies. In adults general well-being results … to be reflected even in healthier skin.
“It is perhaps not so well-known that in winter, sunlight is necessarily of a varying quality. A longer slanting course of the sun to earth, increased smoke, cloudiness and fog filter ultra-violet out of sunshine, so that the average ultra-violet content at mid-day in winter may be but one-twentieth as much as that on a clear day in June! However, those who need the benefits of vital sunshine can have them all winter … day or night … and at home.”
“An urgent
New Medical Warning
to parents…”
Advertisement by Hanovia Chemical & Mfg. Co.
The Literary Digest
June 2,1928
“’The sunlight of which our children are deprived must be given them in the form of the ‘Alpine Sun’ quartz light … Protective radiation against rickets ought to be introduced as universally as is vaccination at the present day.’
“These results are substantiated by leading American physicians. Let us tell you about them in detail.”
“Even if you can’t go South”
Advertisement by Hanovia Chemical and Mfg. Co. for the Alpine Sun Lamp
Hygeia (health magazine by the American Medical Association)
January 1931
“…you can still give your children the benefits of Summer sunshine–right at home. Through the dark days, the indoor days, the days when there is almost a total lack of ultraviolet in the sun itself, you can give your youngsters more …tonic, health-building ultraviolet rays in a few minutes than they could get in an entire day under brilliant Summer sunshine. “And you can do this conveniently and safely with the Hanovia Home Model Alpine Sun Lamp. Ask your family doctor–he is probably one of the 167,000 physicians who has chosen Hanovia equipment for his own use. He will tell you that quartz ultraviolet rays are a vitalizing, Vitamin D building tonic that helps to establish resistance against disease.
“Of course in cases of actual illness, self-treatment and self-diagnosis are dangerous–always. let your doctor prescribe. The Hanovia Home Model Alpine Sun Lamp is sold only in accordance with the requirements of the Council of Physical Therapy of The American Medical Association.”
“For 26 years the choice of the
WORLD’S BEST MEDICAL ADVISORS
THIS SAFE,
BENEFICIAL
Tonic
Sun Lamp”
“RARELY can any health device be purchased by the layman with absolute confidence! But today, those who realize the tremendous benefits of tonic ultra-violet light baths are -in a unique position. For hospitals, physicians and sanitaria the world over have already set up standards to guide anyone in the selection of ultra-violet ray equipment.
“Now, after two decades of experience and observation, more than 163,000 hospitals, sanitaria and physicians have purchased, and now use, the Hanovia Alpine Sun Lamp. And now this famous lamp is available for the home in a smaller model that is safe, convenient, effective and tremendously beneficial…
“On a sunny beach … or under the Alpine Sun Lamp …, children receive the same wonderful tonic benefits. No longer need parents fear the effect upon children of dark, sunless days.”
“DESIGNED FOR THE
HOME!”
Advertisement by National Carbon Co., Inc. for Eveready Sunshine Lamp
Journal of the American Medical Association
December 14, 1929
“Sunshine helps to build health. For many months of the years sunshine is scarce. The Eveready Sunshine Lamp, burning Eveready Sunshine Carbons, makes up for the lack of sunshine, by reproducing the health-giving rays in the home.
“Eveready Sunshine lamps, using Eveready Sunshine carbons, are designed by National Carbon Company engineers and scientists for home use. Naturally, the have designed lamps that re safe in every respect!
“Eveready (carbon-arc) Sunshine will do all that summer sunshine will do. It is as safe and pleasant to bask under as outdoor sunshine.
“This is why many doctors are recommending Eveready Sunshine lamps to their patients.
“The Council on Physical Therapy of the A.M.A. Has accepted our policy of selling Eveready Sunshine Lamps and Carbons to the public.”
“BURDICK now offers a complete complementary
Series of professional and prescription lamps
Covering all office and home needs for both
Utra-violet and infra-red treatments”
Advertisement by The Burdick Corporation for Burdick Ultra-Violet and Infra-Red Lamps
Journal of the American Medical Association
October 4, 1930
“Prescription models make a new service possible for the physician. Burdick Quartz lamps are not sold or rented except under his prescription and direction. Their use also extends to the important field of health preservation as well as the cure of disease…”
“Better Health for America’s
DEFENSE WORKERS”
Magazine advertisement by Hanovia Chemical & Manufacturing Co. for Hanovia sun lamps
Circa 1942
“ARTIFICIAL sunshine is proving a vital factor in keeping employees fit and full of energy…especially when overtime is necessary. This is how England has solved one of her great labor problems — with Hanovia’s wonderful Alpine Sun Lamps…
“At the Harland Engineering Company’s works in Alloa, sickness has been reduced among the workers by over 35 per cent upon installation of a Hanovia Solarium…”
“‘IS THERE A BABY
IN THE HOUSE?’
Switch on a G-E Sunlamp and let the whole family bask in ultra-violet radiation … the chief natural source of vitamin D”
Advertisement by General Electric
LIFE Magazine
Circa 1948
“BRING ultra-violet radiation indoors this winter where you can really enjoy its benefits in solid comfort!
“The new General Electric Sunlamp makes it so easy. You can rest or read — work or play — in perfect freedom. No goggles are needed if you don’t look directly into the light.
“Your doctor will tell you that everyone needs vitamin D. Especially babies and growing children The have to have it to build strong bones and teeth…
“The effect of the ultra-violet rays of the G-E Sunlamp is so similar to that of the summer sun that doctors recommend it as one way to overcome this scarcity of vitamin D. Note that it bears the Seal of Acceptance of the Council on Physical Therapy of the American Medical Assoc aition.
“He’s lucky his folks know the value of vitamin D. You can make sure your baby is getting plenty of vitamin D by turning on the General Electric Sunlamp for a few minutes every day while he plays or sleeps.”
“COMPLETELY SELF-CONTAINED
…INEXPENSIVE TO OPERATE
ONLY $9.95
…so now we have 3
Westinghouse
SUN LAMPS“
Magazine advertisement by Westinghouse for the Westinghouse Sun Lamp
Circa 1950
“A Westinghouse sun bath once a day is grand for the children. The Westinghouse sun lamp has the seal of acceptance of the American Medical Association Council on Physical Medicine.
“Mother uses one in a Select-O-Ray lamp by her bed. The Westinghouse sun lamp, with three times the sun-tan power of a July sun, helps he look better and feel better all year round.”
“Give a June tan
for Christmas”
Advertisement by Westinghouse for Westinghouse Sun Lamp
Circa 1952
“This Christmas give her the suntan she had in June. Give her the look of ‘just back from Bermuda’—the healthy look of a summer tan…
“It needs only a socket in any lamp that’s handy and can be aimed. In a pin-up bracket over the bathroom mirror, you’ll tan while shaving. A few minutes of the lamp each day on your children will keep their cheeks from looking pale this winter…”
“Put on your Summer Suntan
now with a G-E Sunlamp only $9.95″
Advertisement by General Electric for the G-E Suntan Kit
National Geographic
Circa 1952
“TAN ALL OVER — ALL YEAR ‘ROUND! Get a head-to-toe start tonight on a handsome, heathy-looking summer tan — in the privacy of your own home. General Electric Sunlamp fits ordinary AC lamp sockets or a special holder you can use anywhere — bedroom, playroom, bathroom.”
“G-E Sunlamp tans like the sun,
costs only $9.95″
Advertisement by General Electric for the G-E Sunlamp
National Geographic
Circa 1952
“Look for the beautify G-E Suntan Girl on the package..
“Get a healthy-looking tan for all the family right in your own home…
“Children, too, can get the advantages of the sun-tanning ultraviolet rays of General Electric Sunlamps.”
“Now! Have that glorious
SUMMER-TAN LOOK!
G-E Sunlamp tans like the sun“
Advertisement by General Electric for G-E Sunlamp
LIFE Magazine
January 28, 1952
“EVER long for the admiring glances that greet the girl or man with a radiant tan? A General Electric Sunlamp will give you that glorious ‘summer-tan look…’
“DAILY VITAMIN D. The ultraviolet rays of a G-E Sunlamp help children develop string bodies and teeth by helping their bodies build vitamin D…”
“Helps you feel ‘Summer Wonderful’ all winter long –“
Advertisement by Sperti, Inc. for Sperti sunlamps
The Saturday Evening Post
January 11, 1947
“NEW, SUPER-POWERED 575 WATT
Sperti
2-in-1 lamp brings you
Ultra-violet or infra-red
AT THE SNAP OF A SWITCH
EVERYONE INTHER FAMILY WILL USE IT!”
“The next best gift to a
winter vacation”
Advertisement by Sperti, Inc. for the Sperti Portable Sunlamp
The Saturday Evening Post
November 30, 1946
“Convenient, book-size…yet this new electronic wonder tans faster than Southern sunshine…
“A radiant, ‘picture-of-health’ tan…right through sun-stingy winter months! That’s what you give your family when your gift is the amazing new Sperti Portable Sunlamp. For this new electronic wonder brings the benefits of ultra-violet rays right into your own home. Just flick a switch…and you’re basking in the warm, relaxing beneficial rays of your Sperti Sunlamp…”
“Give a package of Sunshine
And make everybody happy!”
‘Advertisement by General Electric for the G-E Suntan Kit
Holiday Magazine
December 1950
“Give everybody a healthy-looking year ’round suntan with a General Electric Sunlamp and a special fixture that clamps everywhere — chair, table, bed or shelf . When summer vacation comes, the whole family will look like they’ve wintered in the Bahamas…
“Progress Is Out Most Important Product…”
Tanning parlor advertisements in The Crimson White student newspaper of the University of Alabama circa 2010-2014.
Although virtually all college students who use tanning beds are aware that the devices increase the chances of getting skin cancer, most students also believe that everything causes cancer and that tanning bed use is no more risky than many other habits.
Upwards of 31%-39% of students who use tanning beds may be addicted to tanning.
College newspapers have been a key advertising medium for tanning bed salons. Literature reviews and internet searches have failed to identify college newspapers that have refused ads for commercial tanning salons or have editorially urged students to avoid tanning beds.
“Tanning doubles cancer risk” (2 pages)
Article by Wayne Grayson
The Crimson White (Student newspaper of the University of Alabama)
September 19, 2007
104,960
of the estimated 212,000 cases of melanoma diagnosed in the United States in 2025 are invasive, affecting 60,550 men and 44,410 women.
8,430
Americans are projected to die from melanoma in 2025, according to the American Cancer Society and the Skin Cancer Foundation.
“Surgeon General: Indoor, outdoor tanning must stop” (2 pages)
Article by Alicia Ault
Family Practice News
August, 2014
38%
of college-age women visit tanning salons regularly, in spite of increasing evidence that this practice is now considered the foremost avoidable causative factor in the rising incidence of melanoma.
1
visit to a tanning salon increases the risk of risk of any form of skin cancer.
“Experts link tanning beds to cancer” (2 pages)
Article by Lydia Sebol Avant
The Tuscaloosa News
July 20, 2009
“‘Tanning Mom’: Does New Jersey Woman Suffer From ‘Tanerexia’?
Concern about New Jersey mom’s copper complexion has spread”
“May 3, 2012 (ABC-TV News)– The New Jersey woman who has denied charges she allowed her 5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth has gained national attention for her own increasingly copper complexion, prompting a suggestion that she suffers from ‘tanerexia.’
“Patricia Krentcil, known as the ‘tanning mom,’ is facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted of second-degree child endangerment. Child services intervened after a nurse at daughter Anna’s school noticed she had a rash and the little girl told her it was from going tanning with her mother.
“The owner of City Tropics tanning salon in Nutley, N.J…said Krentcil pays a flat fee of about $100 per month for unlimited tanning sessions, and that she tans about 20 times per month, roughly five days per week. The owner added that Krentcil does the maximum time of 12 minutes in a standup booth.
[Curator’s note: Krentcil was arrested and charged with child endangerment. She spent a week in jail before she was acquitted of all charges.]
“Tanning beds might as well be coffins.” (9 pages)
Article by Meg Cassidy
Women’s Health
January/February 2013
“According to a recent Mayo Clinic study, the incidence of melanoma has increased eightfold among women ages 18 to 39 since 1970…And despite a ton of information on the dangers of indoor tanning — including a startling new study just published in the British Medical Journal estimating that indoor tanning accounts for more than 170,000 cases of nonmelanoma skin cancers in the U.S. each year — a surprising number of college-age women are using indoor tanning beds because they see it as a healthier alternative to lying out in the sun, and only 35 percent of them knew that a ‘base tan’ is not a healthy way to protect skin from sun damage.”
“TANNING BEDS CAN
KILL YOU.”
Poster by Ashley O’Brion
(Winner of a contest for artists and graphic designers to create posters to communicate the dangers of tanning beds)
Women’s Health
January/February 2013
Photographs of a melanoma
Photograph of a melanoma with classic features: asymmetrical, irregular borders, variegated color
ABC’s of melanoma
Melanoma cycle
Melanoma Risk Factor
- Light skin
- Family history
- Childhood sunburns
- Sensitive skin, including freckles
- Blue/green eyes
- Red/blonde hair
- Moles
Tanning Bed Risks
- Melanoma
- Squamous cell carcinoma
- Basal cell carcinoma
- Burns
- Allergic reactions
- Immune suppression
- Injuries to skin/eyes
- Premature aging of skin
View the one-hour video overview of tanning beds and skin cancer, presented by Alan Blum, MD
Tanning beds emit 12 times more ultraviolet A radiation (UVA, with a longer wave length that penetrates the skin more deeply, disrupts DNA, and causes premature aging and wrinkling) than sunlight.
5%
of tanning bed radiation released is ultraviolet B. UVB burns the upper layers of the skin and increases the chances of getting skin cancer.
“Working on a Killer Tan?”
Photograph by Alan Blum, MD of billboard public service advertisement by the American Cancer Society, Houston, Texas
1980s
“Bronze Bodies and Black Lungs: Five Analogies that Reveal How the Tanning and Tobacco Industries are the Same” (2 pages)
Article by Charles A. Brodine
Melanoma Research Alliance Newsletter
May 17, 2019
70%
of the 28 million tanning bed users are young white women.
Arms and legs are the most common sites of melanoma in this age group (in whom there has been a 7-fold increase in melanoma in the past 40 years).
Sun ‘n’ Smoke?
In 1990 in Australia, which (along with New Zealand) has the world’s highest melanoma incidence and mortality rate, cigarette-maker Philip Morris gave away, with a 2-pack purchase of its most popular brand of cigarettes, a bottle of Maximum Protection Sunscreen Lotion (“HELPS SCREEN OUT HARMFUL UV RAYS WHILST ALLOWING THE SKIN TO DEVELOP A NATURAL GOLDEN TAN”). Purchased by Alan Blum, MD in Perth, Western Australia.
Taking a Cue…
Just as a Camel cigarette advertisement in the 1930s likened smoking to basking in sunshine and a Newport cigarette advertisement in the 2000s meant fun in the sun, tanning salon ads ignore the adverse health consequences of prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation from tanning beds.
“Comrades of the Sun”
Magazine advertisement by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for Camel cigarettes
1931
“Out of the North you come…to bask on the sun-drenched sand…And Camels add to your enjoyment…in their mellowness…is a subtle quality that only golden sunshine can bestow…In the truest sense, they, too, are comrades of the sun.”
“Newport
pleasure!”
Advertisement by Lorillard Tobacco Company for Newport cigarettes
TRUE STORY Romance Special
Summer 2000
“sunbed tanning”
Page from a promotional brochure by Palm Beach Tan, an indoor tanning salon chain with over 660 locations, based in Dallas, Texas
Circa 2015
“EARN REWARDS
EVERY TIME
YOU TAN!”
“Why Are So Many Women Still Getting Skin Cancer?” (9 pages)
Article by Shaun Dreisbach
GLAMOUR Magazine
May 2013
Also in this issue:
“CAMEL CIGARETTES
CRUSH EXPERIENCE
OWN THE OPTION”
Advertisement by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company
“COURAGE
Believe in a world without breast cancer.
Know we’re here until it’s true.”
Advertisement by The Estee Lauder Companies Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign
“They Just Can’t Resist an
OUTDOOR COMPLEXION”
Advertisement by General Electric for G-E Sunlamps
LIFE Magazine
January 1, 1939
“BEAUTY may be only skin deep…but how are you going to enjoy life unless you stop ’em with an appearance of health and well-being? Take a tip from this lucky beachcomber, keep that outdoor complexion.
“Bask in healthful, ultra-violet rays regularly every day right in your own home, snow or shine, beneath a G-E Sunlamp…
“Ultra-violet rays, producers of Vitamin D, build up the calcium supply in the blood. They are essential in the cure and prevention of deficiency diseases…”
(Curator’s Note: The International Smart Tan Network, a trade organization for tanning salon owners, has depicted Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a user of tanning beds, as having a positive health image. The Network’s online publication SMART TAN NEWS, includes this statement: “SmartTan.com news articles regularly report medical and scientific information to keep you abreast of current events related to UV light. This information is not intended to be used by any party to make unwarranted health claims to promote sunbed usage. Indoor tanning businesses are obligated to communicate a fair and balanced message to all clients about your products and services including the potential risks associated with indoor tanning. Contact your Smart Tan representative to find out more about what you can and can’t say in your tanning salon business”.).
“ARE WE HEALTHY YET?”
Cover, “The Beyond Wellness Issue”
WIRED Magazine
September/October 2025
(Curator’s note: Concerns have been raised about Health and Human Services Sectary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s unnaturally dark skin color. Kennedy uses tanning beds, which is the likely cause of his skin condition.)
Curated by Alan Blum, MD
Professor, Department of Family, Internal, and Rural Medicine
Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
Director, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa
Original Design by Kevin Bailey, MA (2019)
Collections Manager and Digital Archivist (2018-2022)
Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa
Updated Design by Bryce Callahan (2025)
Undergraduate student majoring in computer engineering
The University of Alabama
Assisted by Courtney Kaderbek, B.A. (2014)
Catherine J. Randall Research Scholars Program
University of Alabama.
