Years before bikini inspectors patrolled Gold Coast beaches "measuring bikinis while women wore them, walking around", Queensland was so prudish that male swimmers had to cover their chests before they hit the water.

Freedom Then, Freedom Now, an exhibition at the State Library of Queensland, reveals what men were expected to wear while swimming and more, exploring the freedoms Queenslanders have gained and lost over the years.

Freedom Then, Freedom Now explores what personal freedoms have been won in Queensland since the 50s.

The exhibition also shows publications that were deemed too rude for Queenslanders including The Little Red Schoolbook, a book about sex education that was banned by the government in 1972.

Gavin Bannerman, executive manager of Queensland Memory at SLQ, said some people would be "genuinely shocked" by how recently some of the state's freedoms were won.