See San-Nap-Pak sanitary napkin ads from 1932
and 1945 and Ads for teenagers.
See the roughly contemporary Cashay tampon,
box, instructions. (Procter & Gamble donation, 2001), and
Dale (U.S.A., 1930s?-1940s?) Tampons, box, instructions.
(Procter & Gamble donation, 2001)
And, of course, the first Tampax AND - special
for you! - the American fax tampon,
from the early 1930s, which also came in bags.
See a Modess True or False? ad in The American
Girl magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley
in "How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates).
 
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San-Nap-Pak tampon, U.S.A., late 1930s-early 1940s?
Tampon
I can roughly date this tampon from wording that indicates maybe the
1930s ("a new, improved aid to feminine hygiene . . . ." and "This
new simple device replaces belts, buckles, pins, and any other accessories
of any kind and permits the wearer complete protection with nothing to chafe
and complete convenience."). Companies were emphasizing the newness
of tampons. But it does use the word tampon, lacking on earlier boxes because
women probably wouldn't have known what that was (you see phrases like "internal
sanitary napkin"). About this time a report
extensively addressed the chafing problem and more; pads at the time were
big.
The box's color is close to Kotex blue, common for the early menstrual
products, which the history of Procter & Gamble called "hospital
blue"; Dr. Lillian Gilbreth didn't like it, as she reported
to Johnson & Johnson in 1927.
The Procter & Gamble Company kindly donated this tampon along
with dozens of other early American menstrual devices.
Harry Finley created the inconsistently colored scans
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Early tampons often came in bags within a box, probably to
show that they were sterilized and to preserve that sterility. Somebody
at Procter & Gamble had opened the package before the company donated
it to the museum.
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The string stretches 6" (about 15.2 cm). The business
end is a cotton plug 2.5" (about 6.3 cm) long and about 0.75"
(about 1.9 cm) in diameter. The arrow points
to the string circling the plug.
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END
box - folder
See San-Nap-Pak sanitary napkin ads from
1932 and 1945 and Ads for teenagers. See the roughly contemporary
Cashay and Dale tampons,
and very early Tampax and fax.
© 2006 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
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