Pictures of this cup and others.
Tentative history of this cup.
Older comments from users of menstrual cups.
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.


MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH

Tassette rubber menstrual cup (catamenial receptor) prospectus,
instructions, newspaper articles, promotional leaflets for women,
doctors & medical community (1950s-1960s, U.S.A.) (tentative history
of this cup, pictures & sketchy history of American menstrual cups)


Stock prospectus for Tassette, Inc.


When this museum opened in my house, in 1994 (it closed in 1998), a reporter from Seventeen magazine present asked me (a guy!) what I thought the best menstrual hygiene device was. I told her the menstrual cup. It was compact and cheap over the long run.

But many women did not (and do not) want to insert, empty, and reinsert it - especially in public places. I've received many e-mails pro and con over the years about this.

Probably the first modern American cup (there are patents for foreign cups about as old or older) appeared in the 1930s - this cup, Tassette, in its earliest incarnation.

Tambrands (former maker of Tampax tampons) donated this Tassaway prospectus from 1961 and the instructional and promotional literature that follow, some perhaps older. Like all companies, Tambrands followed the activities of its competitors and pounced on information about new ones whether menstrual napkins, cups or fellow tampons and anything else - including any drugs to suppress menstruation.

Read here the interesting early efforts to sell this menstrual cup - the difficulties are familiar to people selling later cups and to their users.

I thank the former Tambrands, maker of Tampax tampons, for contributing this material!

Below: The black & white prospectus measures 7 x 9" (about 17.7 x 22.3 cm).
Someone from Tambrands wrote to the right of the "Class A stock . . ."; it's probably someone's initials with a date.
 


NEXT page of prospectus - undated ad: "3 out of 4 nurses use Tassette" - newspaper article, 20 March 1961: "New Menstrual Aid Offered on National basis" -
undated leaflet: "'Tassette' menstrual cup for internal sanitary protection" - undated leaflet: "a fresh point of view" (#1) -
Tassette stock prospectus, 1961 - "Tassette: the safe and sanitary menstrual cup" - "a fresh point of view" (#2) -
"A Note to the Budget Minded" - "Tassette Menstrual Cup: The ultimate in Sanitary Protection" - the third "a fresh point of view" - "THIS IS TASSETTE"
Pictures of this cup and others. Tentative history of this cup. Older comments from users of menstrual cups.

© 2008 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