Read a partial history of the menstrual cup!
First cup? Tassette, Tassaway, The Keeper, Daintette, Foldene
And read comments from people who have used a cup.
Do cups cause endometriosis? Not enough evidence, says the FDA.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
|What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Founder/director biography |
Gynecological topics by Dr. Soucasaux |
Humor |
Huts |
Links |
Masturbation |
Media coverage of MUM |
Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
Miscellaneous |
Museum future |
Norwegian menstruation exhibit |
Odor |
Olor |
Pad directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Underpants & panties directory |
Videos, films directory |
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.

Introduction to a History of the Menstrual Cup

(PICTURES of cups at the bottom of this page)

The commercial menstrual cup (photos below), a device inserted into the vagina to collect, but not absorb, menstrual blood, has been around at least since the 1930s, when the American Leona W. Chalmers patented it (see part 1 of the history of the menstrual cup); an earlier patent also exists for the Daintette cup - its history is less clear.
(Read more about the history of the menstrual cup - First cup? Tassette, Tassaway, The Keeper, Daintette, Foldene, Gynaeseal)

Women didn't buy many of the Chalmers cups when the company sold the hard rubber cup right before World War ll, and it failed. It wasn't until 1959 that Tassette, Inc., began marketing a softer version, in collaboration with Leona Chalmers. It also failed, in the early 1960s.

Women today can buy the reusable The Keeper, sold since the late 1980s; the one-time use Softcup (Web site, which was once Instead's, which Ultrafem started selling in the fall of 1996 in the western part of the U.S.A.; it's a long story); the British Mooncup (Web site); the Canadian DivaCup, made of silicone (Web site); and the Finnish Lunette cup (Web site no longer working); and more.

(PICTURES of cups at the bottom of this page)

MUM board member Dr. Philip M. Tierno, Jr., director of clinical microbiology and immunology at the New York University Medical Center, kindly donated both the uncommon Tassette and Tassaway cups (below) to this museum. Robert Oreck, president of the company that made the Tassette cup, gave the cup to Tierno, who then gave it to MUM. Dr. Tierno is world renowned for his research into the safety of menstrual hygiene products. Harry Finley, director of MUM, took the photos of the cups, which are in the museum collection.


 


Harry Finley, director of MUM, took the photos of the cups, which are in the museum collection.
 

NEXT: Read more about the history of the menstrual cup! - First cup? Tassette, Tassaway, The Keeper, Daintette, Foldene
Read comments from people who have used a cup.

© 1997-2013 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