See art by Mayra Alpízar | Carlota Berard | Jennifer Boe | Roz Bonnet | Luiza Brown | Nikoline Calcaterra | Judy Chicago | Selin Cileli | Maldoror Capvt Corvi | Maribel Cruz | Thomasin Durgin | Natalie Aniela Dybisz | Elvira | Anne Encephalon | Hélène Epaud | Quiara Z. Escobar | Fanni Fazekas | Pat Fish | Julie Gaw | Gina | Kat Grandy | Martina Hoffmann (1 & 2) | Jelena | Judy Jones | Margaret Kalms | Brina Katz | Lorraine Lamothe | Ria Lee | Sharon Lee | Lana Leitch | Sarah McCutcheon | Isa Menzies | Megan Morris | M. Parfitt | Petra Paul | Ana Elena Pena | Melina Piroso | Elentye Paulauskas-Poelker | Leigh Radtke | Jacquelyn Rixon | Isa Sanz | Vladislav Shabalin | Nelson Soucasaux | Paula Speakman | Melina Szapiro | Von Taylor | Jean Tracy | Joseph Tonna | Jessica Wagner | Jennifer Weigel | Terry Wunderlich | Tamara Wyndham | New Guinea menstrual hut carving
Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci
Ancient Peruvian menstrual art
If you create or own art concerning menstruation or menopause and are interested in showing it on thesepages (it's free!), contact MUM
Marie Claire magazine (Italian edition) featured several of the above artists in an article about this museum and menstruation in 2003. The newspaper Corriere della Sera (Io Donna magazine) (Milan, Italy) and the magazine Dishy (Turkey) showed some of the artists in 2005 in articles about this museum.
HOMEPAGE
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? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation (and awesome ancient art of menstruation) |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Birth control and religion |
Birth control drugs, old |
Birth control douche & sponges |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation & menopause (& reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Contraceptive drugs, old |
Contraceptive douche & sponges |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Examination, gynecological (pelvic) (short history) |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Feminine napkin, towel, pad directory |
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, towel, napkin directory |
Patent medicine |
Poetry directory |
Products, some current |
Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
Religion |
Religión y menstruación |
Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
Menstrual products safety |
Sanitary napkin, towel, pad directory |
Seguridad de productos para la menstruación |
Science |
Shame |
Slapping, menstrual |
Sponges |
Synchrony |
Tampon directory |
Early tampons |
Teen ads directory |
Tour of the former museum (video) |
Towel, pad, sanitary napkin directory |
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 |
Read 10 years (1996-2006) of articles and Letters to Your MUM on this site.
Leer la versión en español de los siguientes temas: Anticoncepción y religión, Breve reseña - Olor - Religión y menstruación - Seguridad de productos para la menstruación.


The Art of Menstruation at the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health


Magic and Medicine in Menstruation, booklet from Schering Corp., U.S.A., 1934
covers 1 & 2, p. 3 New Guinea menstrual hut carving

An American pharmaceutical company produced this booklet for either doctors or their patients - or maybe both. The drug it promoted, Progynon, the "follicle hormone," apparently is estrogen, and it's interesting to read the suggested uses for it in that early era of hormone discoveries. Scientists are today still studying the mysteries of hormone influence and fluctuation.

The warm-up act however is a loose and smug - that's the usual treatment - recounting of menstrual beliefs and customs throughout the world, past and present. I'll bet you a man wrote it; we guys can smell testosterone in ink. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of many of the re-tellings or for the original stories, but it may encourage you to investigate the sources. I put the enlarged footnote references on a separate page (in some browsers it's possible to hold down your mouse button over the link references until a choice window appears; if so, select "open in a separate window" in order to have your references ready, if you are that sort of reader).

Unfortunately the booklet doesn't say where the engravings come from.

The booklet identifies the first engraving, below and enlarged, as a carving above the entrance to a "house of seclusion," probably a menstrual hut, in New Guinea. Is it a woman with her legs spread, her vagina releasing a large drop of blood? Compare Judy Chicago's "Red Flag." See more booklets from companies.

NEXT ARTIST: Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci

 
The inside front cover and page 3 lie beneath the
enlargement of the cover drawing, below.

Next part of the booklet

NEXT artist: Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci

pages 4 5 (Caucasian menstrual hut) 6 7 (menarche costume in British Columbia)
8 9 10 11 (mikvah) 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 back cover & REFERENCES (enlarged)
See more booklets from companies.

Next artist: Art of Menopause by Coni Minneci
See all the artists in the links in the left-hand column.

If you create or own art concerning menstruation or menopause and are interested in showing it on these pages (it's free!), contact MUM


© 1999 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