Some Camelia ads:
1920s (Germany), 1930s
(Germany), 1940/42 (Germany, with underpants made
from sugar sacks, 1945/46), 1952 (Australia),
1970s (France), 1990
(Germany) - Underpants directory
Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made
for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine
- a list of books and articles about menstruation
- videos
See a Kotex ad advertising a Marjorie May
booklet.
See many more similar booklets.
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)
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.
More ads for teens (see also introductory
page for teenage advertising): Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and belts, 1949, U.S.A.)Are you in
the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.),
Are you in the know? (Kotex
napkins and belts, 1964, U.S.A.), Freedom
(1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
See early tampons and a list of tampon on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
 
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Camelia, early disposable menstrual napkin
Booklet (incomplete), the Netherlands, 1928(?)
Nurse Thekla vs The Lady of the Camellias
Camelia was probably the first really successful disposable menstrual
napkin in Germany and probably Europe (in spite of Hartmann's)
and women can buy it even now. Today it's part of Kotex, interestingly enough,
the first widely successful pad in America, which
appeared in the early 1920s, right before Camelia.
Typical of an older kind of advertising (see a page from the often eye-popping
1928 Johnson Smith & Co. catalog, from America),
the booklet below goes on and on about how the pad developed and what its
advantages are, with extensive quotes from letters. Most people today have
little patience for so much reading. I and the Dutch contributor translated
small portions from the Dutch, which is itself a translation from the probable
original German since the product was German.
Two seemingly opposite women are locked into Camelia:
the woman on the cover (below) and on boxes is a prostitute,
the Lady of the Camellias (I suggest sitting down while reading the fascinating explanation); but the booklet's author
is allegedly one Nurse (zuster in Dutch, below,
Schwester in the original German) Thekla Buckeley,
a name that's a puzzling combination of German and English, as the contributor
noted. The nurse, here, wears a uniform derived
from a nun's habit, making a great contrast to the lady of the night (and
camellias). Other women's names associated with early menstrual products
perhaps identify real people (here), perhaps not.
The Dutch contributor of these scans writes, in part:
As you see, Thekla is her first name; her family name: Buckeley!! I
have never read that before, also not on your site.
I think they have chosen this only for the Dutch because of the English
feelings and to counter the German name of Thekla.
In the booklet there is an letter dated 14 December 1925. I have reasons
to believe you can date the Dutch version of the booklet [below] at about
1928, maybe with the start of sales in the Netherlands. In that year some
ads appeared in the Dutch newspaper NRC with a remark about the booklet
and with the company Fa. C.F. van Dijl & Zoon. In 1929 the prices were
lower (it became the time of prices getting lower and lower: the very bad
years we called here the Crises-jaren) and another company takes care of
the business of Camelia in the Netherlands.
NB: Firma Hunkemoller was then but also now a famous supplier of panties,
bras, etc. and in those days (you have mentioned it over and over on your
site) they also have bandages and so on to catch the menstrual flow. Later
also the disposable kind of it.
Camelia was that kind of disposable: see e.g. page 15 for all the advantages.
It was really disposable: it was soluble in water and you could put it
easily into the toilet. (Now everywhere in Europe as U.S.A. water authorities
try to forbid putting things into the toilet!! [See some allegedly
disposable-in-the-toilet pads])
In the left corner of the front is printed: 24e vermeerdere oplage
(24th enlarged edition): maybe this is only making it interesting, to give
it an appeal of very popular booklet. But maybe this is true, but then
so many editions!
I had never heard of this booklet or seen it before I saw it early
this month [July 2007] at a big second-hand book market [in the Netherlands]
(and bought it as you can expect).
As with all advertisements not printed in a paper or magazine: this
sort of old advertisement booklet is rare because everyone thinks it is
(after a while) rubbish and does away with it. Second, the subject was
(and is in some way) taboo and third: a booklet maybe nearly eighty years
old has with all the war/water/cleaning/house improvements and so on little
chance of surviving into 2007!
I hope to translate more of the booklet.
I thank again the kind Dutchman who scanned and sent these pages;
he's sent MUM scores of scans and original documents. He has rescued in
the Netherlands many items that somehow survived World War II, including
those about the military and other subjects. We're indebted to him for his
work!
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Below: Back (at left) and front covers.
The pages measure 10.6 x 14.5 cm (4.17 x 5.71"), 4 pages front, inside
front, back inside, back and 48 numbered pages. Only the pages dealing with
the Camelia pad are shown in the following pages.
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My translation: (left page)
[in Camelia ellipse] Simple and traceless destruction (?) exclusively
guaranteed
popular size 0.75 gilders
gewone (?) size 1.1 gilders
large size 1.25 gilders
The ideal reform menstrual pad
[on the boxes] VISA-BELLA (beautiful face) facial cloth
The facial cloth for proper beauty care |
(right page)
24th enlarged edition
Uncovered and overheard secret in the area of women's hygiene and
rejuvenation
by Sister Thekla Buckeley
offered through
Hunkemöller Lexis firm
corset shops
Amsterdam (9 branches), Haarlem, Leiden, Den Haag, Rotterdam (3 branches),
Eindhoven, Arnhem, Apeldoorn, Utrecht, and Hilversum
Read the story behind the flower. American
commercial printed material associated with menstruation almost never uses
red - the very thought! But see an exception. |
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