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)
See also the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), and Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates)
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.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
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MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
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Amazing women! |
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Words and expressions about menstruation |
Would you stop menstruating if you could? |
What did women do about menstruation in the past? |
Washable pads |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

The Kotex puberty & menstruation booklet
Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, 1929
Next page (cover, pages 3, 4, 12-13, 14-15)

Now the sales pitch starts for Kotex (and continues today with the several manufacturers who make "starter kits" for girls, for example, Tampax).
Click on the colored links to see scenes and advertising from the 1920s and 1930s that Mrs. May and Marjorie would have seen in America, and possibly also in Australia.
"Blood-stained fluid" is the closest the booklet gets to describing the discharge, but the words are accurate.
This copy of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday is in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Curator of Health and Medicine at that museum.

Next page (cover, pages 3, 4, 12-13, 14-15)

© 1999 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