Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made
for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine
- a list of books and articles about menstruation
- videos
See a Kotex ad advertising a Marjorie May
booklet.
See many more similar booklets.
See ads for menarche-education booklets:
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1932),
Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey), Personal
Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b.
tampons (lower ad, 1981)
And read Lynn Peril's series about these
and similar booklets!
Read the full text of the 1935 Canadian edition
of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, probably identical to the American edition.
More ads for teens (see also introductory
page for teenage advertising): Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and belts, 1949, U.S.A.)Are you in
the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and belts, 1964, U.S.A.), Freedom
(1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
See early tampons and a list of tampon on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
 
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Three very early Dutch Tampax menstrual tampon ads, 1938
Tampax started in the U.S.A. in the early 1930s with the invention
of Dr. Earle Haas (read "Small Wonder,"
the company's history of itself from 1936-86),
a two-tube applicator, which contrasted with the non-applicator tampons
of the 1930s in America (for example, Wix). (See a
box of Tampax from the early 1930s.)
Apparently, in the late 1930s Tampax reached Europe, as seen the ads
below in Dutch publications. Tambrands, the company that made Tampax until
the late 1990s, presented this museum a box of its
tampons with French text that it marked with "1938" - maybe
for France, maybe for French-speaking Canada, maybe for both or maybe for
somewhere else.
The advertising emphasizes freedom for sports, etc., and freedom from
menstrual pads and napkin belts (see some American belts)
and pins, which had nagged women for ever.
"Geen gordel, geen spelden, geen verband"
means what it meant on American Tampax boxes for decades: "No belt,
no pins, no pad," the rallying cry of Tampax.
See another Dutch ad from 1938, virtually identical to a contemporary American ad.
A Dutchman generously contributed the scans of the ads and the translation
of the first one.
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Above: 15 September 1938 in Panorama magazine
Translation by the Dutch contributor:
[Title]
TAMPAX
The new method of hygienic protection was advertised the first time a month
ago.
[Balloon]
Now already enthusiastic letters
[Box with letter]
August 1, 1938
I hope that all women realize how thankful they must be to
the inventor of Tampax. It is a real rescue! I recommend as much as possible
Tampax to every girlfriend and they are all just as enthusiastic as me.
[P.S. Velp is a little affluent town nearby Arnhem in the eastern part of
the Netherlands]
[Photo of Tampax box]
Hygienic protection [cross] Internally worn
[right center]: TAMPAX
Recommended by gynecologists
[center] TAMPAX
Patent
10 TAMPAX sufficient for one month
[in black] The solution to a century-old problem
[in black underside] Safe Sure
Pleasant Easy
[Left under]
Tampax is ideal for the civilized woman. Perfect hygienic
protection, absolute certainty, complete invisibility. It gives unhampered
freedom of movement.
[Black box]
No belt
No pins
No napkin
[Body]
Everywhere in the Netherlands, in every town, the ladies
[vrouwen = women; dames = ladies, very distinct] told each other about Tampax,
the new method of hygienic protection.
Tampax has to be worn internally. You can do your daily chores
or do sport as on other days. You can wear the thinnest dress or a modern
sport or bathing suit without people noticing anything. Tampax is perfectly
invisible and you don't notice it yourself .
Tampax was invented by a doctor, for every normal woman and
is after its triumphal march through America and England now also available
in the Netherlands. It is a complete revolution in the field of monthly
hygiene.
No napkin, no belt, no pins anymore. Tampax gives perfect
protection and can be changed in a moment. It is manufactured from extraordinary
strong absorbing, medical cotton-wool, strongly compressed, packed in sealed,
patented applicator.
Recommended by gynecologists and Dutch doctors.
A box for a whole month supply can be stored easily in your
handbag and cost only 65 cents [nominally about 24 dollar cents*)], a trail
box 35 cents.
[Coupon]
N.V. [=limited liability company] Drogerijen Maatschappij
Verlaatstraat 52-56, Rotterdam
Send me a trial box of Tampax. Enclosed are stamps worth
35 cents.
Name/Street/Town
Send it in closed envelop as a letter.
[*)nominal one Dutch guilder = 100 cents = about 0,45 Euro
= about 40 dollar cents nowadays]
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Above: from Panorama, 29 September 1938. The large words at top
say, "Freedom from the pad." Note the nurse, once common on menstrual
product packaging. See a frightening
but pretty German nurse wagging her finger.
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From Panorama, 1 September 1938. The headline reads, "Life
for women is more confortable - each month."
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British ad promoting use with thongs, 1994
- another British Tampax ad, with nudity, 1992
- "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?"
ad
(Feb. 1990) - August 1965 ad (U.S.A.)
© 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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