See an ad for this booklet.
See covers of Growing Up and Liking It booklets - ads for teenagers
Read most of a 1928 Australian edition of the Kotex booklet Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, and read three mid-1930s booklets by Kotex, including a much-changed version of Marjorie May's twelfth Birthday.
Read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets! And see covers of the booklets How shall I tell my daughter?, Growing up and liking it, and Personal Digest
Read the whole menarche booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
o.b. ads
Dutch (1959) - German (1970s) - German nude (1970s) - French (1989)
Read a Personal Products booklet for older girls from about this time, The Periodic Cycle (1938). See similar booklets on this site.
Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine - a list of books and articles about menstruation - videos
What did American and European women use in the past for menstruation?
See also How shall I tell my daughter? and Personal Digest and read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
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)
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.
Is this the first Tampax tampon? Go to Early Commercial Tampons
Other early commercial tampons - Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign
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.
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.

"Die Menstruation"
excerpts from the o.b. tampon, menstruation & puberty booklet for girls, 1977, Germany

No other menarche booklet that I know of features such bold and "artsy" photographs as this one from the company that sold the o.b. tampon before the American Johnson & Johnson bought the brand in the 1970s. The reportedly highest paid photographer in the world at the time, the Englishman David Hamilton, took many and perhaps all of the photographs, one of which I include and which you can see here (I've omitted some of the explicit pictures). He was (and is) famous for his photographs of girls but here he includes a boy to illustrate the section on anatomy.

Like most menarche booklets the text can be poetic in places, matching some of the romantic Hamilton photos. And like all of them the booklet pitches the company's products, here, tampons with no applicators.

This booklet could not have appeared in the 1930s and maybe not even the 40s or 50s because it encouraged young girls - meaning virgins - to use tampons, which the Catholic Church and other groups early opposed. Tampax faced these problems in the 1930s and later (see the Tampax ad "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?").

I first saw this booklet in the window of an Apotheke (pharmacy) in Heidelberg in the 1970s, not to see it again until decades later when a contributor in Europe generously sent me scans of it.

See an ad for this booklet. And see a later Dutch booklet that is about as explicit but using drawings.

A Dutchman kindly sent these scans.

 

 

 Above, cover: The title translates as
"Menstruation.
"A theme out of which many others issue"
Upper right, inside front cover:
At top:
"This little booklet belongs to:"
The last line indicates the fourth edition and the number of copies printed - a lot, 7-8 million.
Right, page1:
"The Themes:
"The girl.
"The boy.
"The sexual organs and their function.
"The physical, mental and spiritual development.
"menstruation.
"Menstrual hygiene."
I somehow chopped off the bottom of the cover but no text was lost.

 

Next: 2 3 4 5 6 - more o.b. ads Dutch (1959) - German (1970s) - German nude (1970s) - French (1989)

© 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any
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