See early tampoms Dale, Wix and B-ettes and a bunch of other earlier ones.
See San-Nap-Pak sanitary napkin ads from 1932 and 1945 and Ads for teenagers. See the roughly contemporary Cashay tampon, box, instructions. (Procter & Gamble donation, 2001), and
Dale (U.S.A., 1930s?-1940s?) Tampons, box, instructions. (Procter & Gamble donation, 2001)
And, of course, the first Tampax AND - special for you! - the American fax tampon, from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
See a Modess True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets for girls (mostly) directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | facts-of-life booklets for girls | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | menarche booklets for girls and parents | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor | olor | pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants & panties directory | videos, films directory | Words and expressions about menstruation | Would you stop menstruating if you could? | What did women do about menstruation in the past? | washable pads
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Cashay tampons (1930s-1940s?, U.S.A.)
Instructions

See the box and tampon.

Procter & Gamble kindly donated the box and contents as part of a gift of scores of menstrual products.

 

Companies continually examine competitors' products, or should, and a vigilant eye at Tampax spotted something worthy of passing on. See the last item, below, for the find, a clue I think to this product's failure.

 

Note the word "bandages," an old term (in the singular) for menstrual pad. Menstrual products used to sit in the same section of the American patent office as bandages for wounds, which in a sense they are. Kotex started life as a bandage in World War I; Johnson & Johnson made bandages before it made pads and tampons.
Cellulose and cotton seem to be the main constituent of tampons since their modern commercial beginnings. I pulled the tampon apart to show the interior, here.

 

The instructions mention only "bath-tub" by name as the place for a woman to put her foot when inserting the tampon. If she were at work a toilet would be much more likely. I wonder if this indicates a prudish avoidance of the word "toilet" or a hint that the user would most likely be at home - that is, not working.

 

A Tampax hand - Procter & Gamble, which bought Tambrands, the maker of Tampax, donated the box - probably drew the arrow, reacting to the affront of having its own tampon possibly mentioned for not being as effective as Cashay. I suspect women found Tampax easier to insert than this brand because of its very hardness.
I believe women still prefer pads to tampons in America; the optimistic statement that once having used Cashay you will never use "outer pads" again is wrong (and the company no longer exists), especially, I suspect, after having tried to get the darned thing into a dry or mostly dry vagina and without some lubricant, which you left at home. Other companies have lubricated their tampons, Pursettes, for example.

END See the box and tampon.
See early tampoms Dale, Wix and B-ettes and a bunch of other earlier ones.

See San-Nap-Pak sanitary napkin ads from 1932 and 1945 and Ads for teenagers. See the roughly contemporary Dale tampon, and very early Tampax and fax.
© 2001 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org