Drawing for a proposed German belt and pad, 1894
See Japanese instructions for making menstrual belts and pads at home in the early 20th century.
Suspenders to hold pads (U.S.A., 19th century)
More belt topics
Actual belts in the museum
See how women wore a belt (and in a Swedish ad) - many actual 20th-century belts - 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) - drawing for a proposed German belt and pad, 1894
See Japanese instructions for making menstrual belts and pads at home in the early 20th century.
What did American and European women use in the past for menstruation?
See a prototype of the first Kotex ad.
See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal method - box from about 1969 - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
Ads for the Kotex stick tampon (U.S.A., 1970s) - a Japanese stick tampon from the 1970s.
Early commercial tampons - Rely tampon - Meds tampon (Modess)
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | 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, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | 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
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.

Ad for washable-pad belts ("Diana-Gürtel"), from Teufel (Germany, ca. 1900?)

Teufel (devil in German, here certainly a family name - um, right?) also made a line of washable pads.

Commercial belts for menstrual pads probably appeared in the 19th century (see an American one and a later one from Japan, which shows a curious rebounding European influence; and see many that this museum has)

Diana, of course, is the Roman goddess of the hunt, moon and virgins, and her name here betrays the much higher awareness of the public then for classical themes (the American company Sears, Roebuck & Co. sold Diana and Venus menstrual belts).

Classical, too, is Odysseus - Ulysses - the brand-name material used in the front part of the belt, below, and - Whoa! How did he get in there?! He didn't have to leave the house for this adventure! Classical hanky-panky in the German menstrual products industry! And perhaps rightly so that the Devil is involved!

The ad is from Junker, Almut and Stille, Eva.: Zur Geschichte der Unterwäsche [Towards a History of Underwear]. 1700-1960. Eine Ausstellung des Historischen Museums Frankfurt 28. April bis 28. August 1988. ; FfM, Germany (Historisches Museum) 1988, the catalog of an exhibit of the history of underwear at the museum of the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Unfortunately the catalog does not tell where the ad appeared; it strikes me as being from the manufacturer's own catalog; see the last sentence of the ad on this page, which suggests that there are many pages of Teufel's things in this publication (Teuflisch schwer! - Devilishly difficult, this problem!)
My translation lies below the ad.

 

Translation for the first belt:
Diana Belt No. 1
Registered trademark - Patent of the German Empire
[D. R. means Deutsches Reich, the second one, which lasted from 1871 until the end of World War I; the first one started with Charlemagne ( 962 A. D.), and Napoleon ended it in 1806; and the third began and ended with, yes, Hitler.]
Elegant individual packaging
Front part made from "Odysseus" (Ulysses) material, porous material of the greatest durability, or gray moleskin.
Waist belt of knitted webbing with rubber insert.
Suspended pouch made from super-fine
[feinfein, no less!] rubberized fabric with a pad of tiny wood shavings [And you think you have it bad?]
The second belt has better material and is pricier.
The sentence at the bottom translates as
Diana belts with washable inserts, see page 90.
which hints that this page is from the Teufel products catalog. See some
Diana washable pads.
You can see which part of the belt goes in front with your MUM's handy-dandy diagram, which explains all for the uninitiated, meaning men, usually. Hey, it took me a long time to figure this out.

Belts and washable pads from the 1902 and 1908 Sears, Roebuck catalogs - belt from Jordan, Marsh & Co. catalog, Boston, 1891. Suspenders to hold pads (U.S.A., 19th century)

© 2001 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org