Belt topics
See how women wore a belt (and in a Swedish
ad). See a modern belt
for a washable pad and a page from the 1946-47
Sears catalog showing a great variety - ad for Hickory
belts, 1920s? - Modess belts in Personal Digest
(1966)
See a Modess True or False? ad in The American
Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley
in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
 
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The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health
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Imagine having to wear this sanitary apron (left)
to prevent menstrual blood from leaking to your clothing! Sears, Roebuck
offered this and other models for many years in its catalogs; this one is
a facsimile of a menstrual apron from the 1914 catalog (below).
See more sanitary aprons.
Dr. Ann Wass, who
has created costumes for the Folger Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C.,
made this menstrual apron on commission from MUM.
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(Above)
The menstrual apron and pad holder in front are cloth-covered rubber.
The wearer pinned absorbent cloth, such as bird's-eye diaper cloth, onto
the inner side of the holder. Of course, the woman wore the whole contraption
"backwards," under her dress, and over her buttocks, to keep the
menstrual blood away from her clothing.
A black American visitor to MUM said that she
knew of many women today who would buy one! She said black women tend to
gush in the early days of their menstrual periods.
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Sears offered at the same time a nifty traveling
kit for menstruation (below),
consisting of a simple apron, together with several washable menstrual pads
and belts, and a waterproof pouch to carry used pads so they could be washed
when the traveler returned home.
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What DID women do when they were traveling?
In 1914 virtually every woman used cloth menstrual pads; commercial
tampons for menstruation did not appear until the late 1920s or early
1930s (Tampax appeared about 1933), but they
were not popular. Apparently women either (1) took the sanitary napkins
home to wash them (or used the facilities where they were staying, but that
seems problematic); or (2) burned them in a fireplace in the room they were
occupying. There were also special portable burners
available as early as the 1890s in England specifically
to burn menstrual pads!
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© 1998 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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