Kotex ad emphasizing shame, 1992
See Kotex items: First ad (1921)
- ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person in a menstrual
hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here
to Kotex items) - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s,
booklet for girls; Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing
disposal method - box
from about 1969 - "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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Lister's Towels disposable menstrual napkin (ads)
The first American disposable? (1896-1920s?)
Until about the 1880s women in America and Europe probably either made
their own menstrual pads (see Norwegian pads),
bought washable pads (here) or wore, um, nothing
(read about this).
But then Hartmann in Germany and Johnson
& Johnson in the U.S. made throw-away pads, similar to what women use
today in many countries.
The Dutch contributor of many items and information to this site writes
that in the book Dieses kleine Stück Watte: Werbung und Tabu, am
Beispiel Binden und Tampons (Renate Waschek, 1995) [This Little
Piece of Wadding: Advertising and Taboo Using the Examples of Menstrual
Pads and Tampons - Harry Finley made all the translations] "[s]he
has a timetable with important dates (starts on page 115). She writes:
1885: Fürst beschreibt erstmals den Aufbau einer Menstruationsbinde,"
etc. etc., with reference to Hering; Maierhof page 36-37 [Fürst
describes for the first time the construction of a menstrual pad. (It's
possibly here, published in 1894.)] [See an
1888 design by German gynecologist J. Großmann.]
1896: Die ersten industriell gefertigten Wegwerfbinden kamen in den
USA auf den Markt. Sie bestanden aus Wattekissen im Mulleinschlag und wurden
von der Firma Johnson &Johnson hergestelt, Markenname: 'Lister's towels.'"
[1896: The first American commercial disposable pads
appeared on the market. They were made of a cotton pad in a muslin case
and made by Johnson & Johnson and called Lister's Towels.] Her
reference: page 299 of Umbach, Wilfried (Hrsg.): Kosmetik. Entwicklung,
Herstellung und Anwendung kosmetischer Mittel. [Cosmetics: Development,
Manufacture and Use of Cosmetic Materials] Kap. 6: Hygienemittel; 1988
Ende des 19. Jahrh. (...) Die Verbandstoffirma Paul Hartmann stellt
für die Europäerinnen die ersten Wegwerfbinden her - die 'Mulpa-Damenbinde.'"
[End of the 19th century . . . . The bandage firm
Paul Hartmann made the first disposable pad for European women - the 'Mulpa Ladies Pad.']
She didn't give a reference to this."
J&J's contribution was Lister's Towels, apparently a product of
the "tiny Lister Company, whose principal reputation was as a notorious
price cutter. Johnson bought it out for $2,000," writes A Company
That Cares, the company history of Johnson & Johnson, p. 52. The
company probably took its name from the British proponent of germ theory
and cleanliness, who worked to reduce the morbidity and death rate among
patients by killing germs using a spray of carbolic acid.
The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation (Delaney, Lupton
and Toth, 1988, pp. 138-39) states
Johnson and Johnson manufactured "Lister's Towels" in 1896,
the first commercial disposable pad, made of gauze-covered cotton. But
because turn-of-the-century morality prevented advertising these "unmentionables,"
the pads did not reach many women and were eventually withdrawn from the
market.
But I think they did reach many women and the
pads survived much longer than the turn of the century as the ads below
attest.
And at least one other disposable appeared in America before Kotex muscled
in in the early 1920s: Curads, now mostly known
for its bandages (that term has been also used for menstrual pads) - see
an ad in Vogue magazine.
I again thank the kind genealogy researcher who found this valuable
evidence, below!
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Below: From the Oakland Tribune, September
30, 1904 (see the arrow). Lister's is the only
menstrual pad listed!
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Below: November 21, 1921, Oakland [California]
Tribune. Look how the regular price doubled
from 1904 to 1921, same newspaper, above, but without inflation figured
in. Hey, typo! The apostrophe should be between the
r and s in the title!
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Below: June 8, 1922, Reno [Nevada] Evening
Gazette. Look at the bandeau ad below the Lister's;
they were fabric bands without cups that compressed the breasts. Sized cups
appeared in the 1930s. Flat or minimal breasts were the rage then, as in
John Held's College Girl painting, here. Typo again, or dirt?
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Below: Lima [Ohio] News, May 1, 1924. See
Lister's Towels at the bottom of the right-hand column. Wait, what's THAT?
Mum deodorant - no relation to your MUM, this museum - is under Toilet Articles.
See an ad for the real thing!
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Early American pads in newspaper ads. Early Modess pads in newspaper ads. First
Kotex ad (1921) -
Kotex ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) -
Lee Miller Kotex ads (first real person in a
menstrual hygiene ad, 1928)
See ads for menarche-education booklets:
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday
(Kotex, 1933), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey),
Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and
German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1981)
See also the booklets How
shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), Growing
up and liking it (Modess, various dates), and Marjorie
May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1928).
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and
similar booklets!
See another ad for As One Girl to Another (1942),
and the booklet itself.
© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the 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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