Simon Baruch was a physician, scholar, and the foremost advocate of the urban public bathhouse to benefit public health in the United States. He was a medical officer for the Confederate States army and after its defeat, a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other criteria.