More American tampons from the 1930s & 40s:
EZO, Holly-Pax, L&F, Lotus, LOX, Meds, Nappons, Sa-tips, Secret, Sta-Pacs, Tux - All tampons, pads on MUM
Visit the ODOR page.
ALL TAMPONS on this site.
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 Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health

vams menstrual tampon
(1948, U.S.A.)

Like an early American tampon, fax, vams seems to have been written lower case.

Why vams? The closest word to it I could think of was vamp but the seduction implied by that word seems out of place. But there is this possibility. And this: could it have been slang from this era?

Dixie Belle suggests the American South, appropriate since this is a cotton product; King Cotton traveled the world before the Civil War and made southern planters rich. I find it interesting that both words come ultimately from French and maybe therefore from New Orleans. But the maker of this tampon operated in New York.

The tampon might have avoided conflict with Tampax's patented cardboard applicator by making the inner tube much smaller. Many early American tampons avoided that legal problem by forgetting about an applicator and required the user to apply her fingers, a solution probably more agreeable in Europe than in American or Japan, which had gone to great lengths to shield fingers from the menstruating vagina.

All tampons, pads, belts, bidets, miscellaneous, puberty booklets, art, underpants, teen ads
MORE in column at left.
More American tampons from the 1930s & 40s:
EZO, Holly-Pax, L&F, Lotus, LOX, Meds, Nappons, Sa-tips, Secret, Sta-Pacs
Procter & Gamble kindly donated the unopened box.

Below: The cardboard box measures 5 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 1 3/8" (13.8 x 8.5 x 3.5 cm).
Strange that the number of tampons is not indicated on the front, only on the ends. But at least it's
there; some early American tampons gave no number at all!
The opposite sides are identical.
Below: The long sides.
Below: The ends.
 

NEXT: Instructions tampon
More American tampons from the 1930s & 40s:
EZO, Holly-Pax, L&F, Lotus, LOX, Meds, Nappons, Sa-tips, Secret, Sta-Pacs
All tampons, pads on MUM

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