 
|
 
THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Is this the first Tampax menstrual tampon? Or the first menstrual tampon,
period? (Sorry.) (U.S.A., about 1931-33)
Boxes (1931-33) and two newspaper ads (1934, bottom
of page)
In May, 2005, a woman in Texas wrote me that among the effects of her
83-year-old mother-in-law, who had just died, was an odd-looking box of
Tampax. She sent me a scan of the front. Did I know how old it was?
I knew that the first Tampax Inc. was in Denver, Colorado, and that
city appears on this box. Before I consulted my own Web site, - foolish
me! - I guessed that one of the patent numbers was for Dr. Earle Haas's
Tampax patent, his "catamenial device" (catamenia is a medical
term meaning menstruation).
Well, I wanted the box, which seemed to predate the 1936 box of Tampax
(here) that Tambrands itself had given me as
part of a huge gift of material from its archives (read more here).
I offered to buy it and the owner accepted.
But when I checked the patent numbers I didn't find the famous one,
just two of Haas's earlier patents from the 1920s. The words on the box
"OTHER PATENTS PENDING" must have included the famous one and
meant that this box appeared before the patent office had approved it.
Whoopee! The box was older than I thought, which I conveyed to the delighted
seller.
Here's how I dated the box. Dr. Earle
Haas, Tampax's inventor, stated to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
(www.uspto.gov/) that he first used the name Tampax in commerce on 1 December
1931; the trademark was granted on 14 June 1932. That office granted him
the "catamenial device" patent for the two-tube menstrual tampon
on 12 September 1933 (#1926900, first page here).
So the box shown here must have been made between those dates, or shortly
afterwards, since the box does not show the number of the Tampax patent
(the two numbers it shows are for a similar device to insert powder into
body cavities). On 16 October 1933 he sold his patent and trademark to
a group headed by Gertrude Tenderich, a Denver businesswoman who immigrated
from Germany and who herself would sell the Tampax company in 1936 after
failing to make a go of it because of lack of cash. (Kimberly-Clark was
thinking of buying it but its sales manager wrote that it would be "just
like throwing money right out the window." [From "Shared Values:
A History of Kimberly-Clark" by Robert Spector, 1997, p. 67]) The
buyer would make Tampax successful before selling out to Procter &
Gamble in the 1990s. (Most of this information comes from "Small Wonder,"
the history of Tampax commissioned by Tambrands.)
Earlier I believed that perhaps fax tampon was the earliest commercial
tampon MUM had. Now it looks as if Tampax not only is the oldest in the
museum, it is probably the earliest American commercial tampon of all. (But
see my 2006 considerations about Nunap and fax here
based on a reading of "Shared Values.")
|
 |
The cellophane covering is discolored and ripped. It looks
as if something dripped onto the package. The box measures 5.5"
long x1.75" high x1.125 deep " (14x4.3x2.9 cm). The color in the
photo is pretty accurate, the lettering being deep blue - almost Kotex blue,
a favorite in the American menstruation trade of the 1920s (read about this
here) - and the box tan, which might be the effect
of oxidation.
The reverse side has identical information and blue lettering.
I wonder why the package does not mention the applicator, which was the
genius of Tampax. Maybe because this was the first commercial menstrual
tampon and the consumer would not have known there would be a tampon without
an applicator - which characterizes most of the early tampons (see fax, for example, which didn't even have
a string to pull it out of the vagina! And the fax package calls
its tampon an "internal sanitary napkin," referring to something
the user would be familiar with, thus declaring its early appearance.)
All images copyright 2005 Harry Finley
|
 |
Both long sides (above) have
the same information and blue lettering. (Black and white image)
|
 |
Each tampon cost about 4.2 cents, roughly what Lox
would cost at the end of the 1930s. A little later, other tampons were much
cheaper, like Tamponettes. Both ends (above)
have the same information and blue lettering. (Black and white image)
|
 |
Above: Newspaper ad from the Oakland [Cal.]
Tribune, Friday, May 11, 1934, bottom of page 9 next to a perfume and toiletries
ad. Tampon companies often called their products sanitary
napkins since women might not have been familar with the word tampon.
I thank very much a genealogy researcher for this scan and several others
of tampon ads! She wants to remain anonymous.
|
|
 |
Above: Newspaper ad from the Lincoln [Nebraska]
Star, October 24, 1934. "[D]esigned by a physician, so it is safe"
plays on the trust people had in doctors; the ad would not have said that
in the 19th century, when patent medicine companies
probably enjoyed a better reputation, and maybe not today. And just as with
Wix tampons, Tampax sent out Mrs. Frederick and
others to explain this wonder to customers.
|
© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any
of the work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written
permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org
|