The untold history of America’s oldest nudist magazine

The dramatic conflict that established The Bulletin as the official journal of American nudism

Editor’s note: A significantly shorter version of this article first appeared in The Bulletin, September 2020. This version has been expanded with more detail and new information for paid Planet Nude members.

The AANR Bulletin has a storied history that is closely intertwined with the history of America’s nudism movement. At different junctures over the years, The Bulletin itself has featured articles chronicling this history. These generally go back to 1951, when The Bulletin began as a standalone publication. However, the magazine’s roots actually reach back nearly 20 years earlier to the very beginning of the nudism movement. Interestingly, what many of its previous written histories omit is a dramatic story of political conflict and upheaval within the nudist movement, a quarrel which led The Bulletin to be established in the first place.