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American washable menstrual pad (date?)
Ben Truwe, in Oregon, e-mailed that one of his family members found
this object among bow ties from a thrift store in Pittsburgh - but it's
no tie:
What brought me back to your site was the item in the attached photo.
I found it in with a bunch of old neckties, but it's obviously no tie.
It's of soft unbleached cotton muslin, seems to be professionally made,
machine stitched, and the right length to attach to a belt front and back.
It's untagged, unmarked and unused. Can you identify it?
It is the right size, almost 24" long; the first Kotex pad - read
the ad describing it - in 1921, measured
22 inches (ca. 56 cm.) long, and the filler was 3.5 inches (ca. 9 cm.) wide.
(A Johnson & Johnson report describes even bigger
pads.) As you see in the photo, the cloth overlaps in a way that would
have made it easy to put in a filler to absorb the menstrual discharge.
And menstrual pad belts have used buttons to attach the pad - see a German version from right before World War II.
I thank Matie and Jacob Trewe for the pad and Ben Truwe for his research
about the Sanitary Towel Laundry of Lincoln, Nebraska,
and much other information,.
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Above: A closer view of one end.
Right: The overlapping folds could hold
a filler.
Below: An even closer shot. There's no
stain from menstrual blood and protein; see an old Italian
washable pad with stain.
Photos: Harry Finley
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© 2007 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of
the work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written
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