See Pad-n-all, a similar pad with
belt from about the same time.
 
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Delicate, a menstrual pad with belt in a tube, U.S.A., after 1943
I don't have to tell you that women must carry menstrual supplies with
them, something hard to do before tampons appeared in the early 1930s (see
a very early Tampax). But in the 1940s (or before)
a company invented a tampon-size sanitary napkin with belt enclosed in an
innocuous-looking tube, just the ticket to conceal that time of the month,
a vital task in American and many other cultures. (But some cultures advertise
menstruation by segregating women, parts of India,
for example.)
I sure hoped the victims, er, users, of this product tried it out before
using it outside the house. I can hear the curses now as she struggled to
unfurl the darned thing - well, see the next page for details. And older
pads (here) dwarf this one, making me wonder
if it did the job.
The Procter & Gamble Company kindly donated Delicate to MUM as
part of a gift of scores of old menstrual products from its archives.
Harry Finley created the images.
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Above: These one-sheet instructions wrapped
around the tube (see the previous page). I enlarged the back of the page,
directly above, so you could read it - thus the difference in sizes. And
the front side, at left, DOES have a bluish tint.
Left: This is what the woman pulled out
of the tube. I had trouble stetching and fluffing it, maybe because the
cylinder is 60-or-so years old. I have nothing but compassion for the user,
especially in an emergency.
After stretching and fluffing, see what you get, below.
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The pad is short but thick. The cord stretches a bit and seems be the
same material as the pad covering. You can't see the hole in the back tab,
but the user snaked the cord through the holes and put that baby on. (See why the back tabs on sanitary napkins were longer
than the front ones.) Being a woman is complicated.
NEXT: an ad, 1953.
Delicate box and tube - See Pad-n-all,
a similar pad with belt from about the same time.
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