Possibly the first American disposable
pad: Lister's Towels
Early Midol ads for headache,
hiccups, and PMS.
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
 
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Early ads for American menstrual pads
Paper and cloth menstrual pads
Newspapers, U.S.A.
Kotex was not the first American disposable pad, as the ads below show.
Yes, Johnson & Johnson made the throw-away Lister's
Towels - pads - in the late 19th century but who would've guessed there
were other makers of the pads in the 1910s and 1920s? Not me!
As you can see (and here, too) companies
sold washable cloth pads along with paper pads. Cloth pads gradually faded
during the 1920s in America (but not in Germany!)
only to revive in the last quarter or so
of the 20th century, partly from ecological concerns, partly from women
accepting their periods..
I thank the industrious retired teacher and genealogist for sending
these scans and many others!
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Below: From the Fort Wayne [Indiana] News,
July 9, 1917. Paper sanitary
napkins, which would be disposable (remember that Kotex appeared in 1920).
Note the misspelling of "regularly," easy to do when hands rather
than computers set the type and the only spell checkers were people. See
some menstrual belts. See a beautiful ad for sanitary bloomers and more ancient
and modern underpants.
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Below: from the Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh,
Wisconsin, Sept. 9, 1915. Paper
and cloth menstrual pads.
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Below: from Newport [Rhode Island] Daily
News, April 22, 1914.
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Below: from the Trenton [New Jersey] Evening
Times, June 19, 1916.
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Next early pad ads.
Possibly the first American disposable pad: Lister's Towels - Early Modess
ads: newspaper, 1928,
1931,"Modess . . .
. because" ads, the French Modess,
and the German "Freedom" (Kimberly-Clark)
for teens. Early Midol ads for headache, hiccups,
and PMS. Other Modess ads: another from 1928, 1931,"Modess . . . . because" ads, the French
Modess, and the German "Freedom" (Kimberly-Clark)
for teens.
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© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work
on
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