Possibly
the first American disposable pad: Lister's Towels
Early Midol
ads for headache, hiccups, and PMS.
See a prototype
of the first Kotex ad.
See more Kotex items: Ad
1928 (Sears and Roebuck
catalog) - Marjorie
May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls,
1928, Australian edition; there are many links
here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish
showing disposal
method - box
from about 1969 - Preparing
for
Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are
you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See
more ads on the Ads for
Teenagers main page
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The Museum of Menstruation and Women's
Health
Early ads for
American menstrual pads
Paper and cloth menstrual pads
Newspapers, U.S.A.
Kotex was not the first American
disposable pad, as the ads below show.
Yes, Johnson & Johnson made the
throw-away Lister's
Towels - pads - in the late 19th
century but who would've guessed there
were other makers of the pads in the
1910s and 1920s? Not me!
As you can see (and here, too)
companies sold washable cloth pads
along with paper pads. Cloth pads
gradually faded during the 1920s in
America (but not in Germany!)
only to revive
in the last quarter or so of the 20th
century, partly from ecological
concerns, partly from women accepting
their periods..
I thank the industrious retired
teacher and genealogist for sending
these scans and many others!
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Below:
From the Fort Wayne [Indiana] News,
July 9, 1917.
Paper sanitary
napkins, which would be disposable
(remember that Kotex appeared in
1920). Note the misspelling
of "regularly," easy to do when hands
rather than computers set the type and
the only spell checkers were people.
See some menstrual
belts. See a beautiful ad for sanitary
bloomers and more ancient and
modern underpants.
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Below:
from the Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, Sept. 9, 1915. Paper and cloth
menstrual pads.
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Below:
from Newport [Rhode Island] Daily
News, April 22, 1914.
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Below:
from the Trenton [New Jersey] Evening
Times, June 19, 1916.
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Next
early pad ads.
Possibly the
first American disposable pad: Lister's Towels - Early Modess ads:
newspaper, 1928, 1931,"Modess . . . .
because" ads, the French
Modess, and the German "Freedom"
(Kimberly-Clark) for teens. Early Midol ads
for headache, hiccups, and PMS. Other Modess ads:
another from 1928,
1931,"Modess . . . .
because" ads, the French
Modess, and the German "Freedom"
(Kimberly-Clark) for teens.
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© 2006 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
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