See a roughly contemporary pad, Society,
and a "silent purchase" ad for Modess,
1928.
Other Modess ads: 1931,"Modess . . . . because" ads, the French
Modess, and the German "Freedom" (Kimberly-Clark)
for teens.
See a prototype of the first Kotex
ad.
See more Kotex items: Ad 1928 (Sears
and Roebuck catalog) - Marjorie May's Twelfth
Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many
links here to Kotex items) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal
method - box from about 1969 - Preparing
for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls) - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See
more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
 
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The pefect menstrual pad 3 (1 2
4 4a 5):
Belts, aprons, step-ins, deodorant powder and cream
"Report of Gilbreth, Inc.," to
the Johnson & Johnson Company, 1 January 1927, about
how to improve the company's menstrual products, especially with regard
to competition with Kotex pads
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The right mannequin wears
an early 1990s Kotex napkin belt, essentially the same as one from the 1920s.
Clasps hold the pad to it, although pins could be used.
(This was part of the exhibit in the actual MUM museum. Take
a tour!)
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About half of the women who responded to the survey used elastic
belts (closest mannequin in the photo) to hold their pads
in place and usually could not remember what brand it was. They overwhelmingly
used safety pins to attach pads to the belt
- remember the Tampax ads crowing "no pins"?
- because the clasps that came with many belts could fail. And they avoided
belts that came apart to be buttoned on, because they too often failed.
That meant that women usually put the belt on over their heads and wore
them either at waist or low on the hips. Some women made their own from
gauze, elastic or ribbon.
Few women, 162, liked "sanitary aprons"
because they had a rubber odor, faded or turned yellow or gray with washing,
tore easily and slipped and twisted.
The report doesn't recommend rubber bloomers,
but seems to say they are popular, [continued below]
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Above is a Hickory brand step-in from
an ad in the June 1926 McCall's Magazine (U.S.A.). From the ad: "Wear
them under your knickers this summer. This style, in cool
mesh and light rubber . . . ." (See Hickory
belts for pads.)
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which might be a typo (it is not an item in the statistics table). They
trap moisture, which is not healthy. A high school faculty member said,
"The ideal thing would be to get protection enough in the napkin."
Gilbreth preferred rubber step-ins (at
left and here - 67 wrote that they used them) to
aprons and bloomers because they didn't become hot or slip, "but it
is a nuisance to have to wear so much rubber when only a little is needed.
. . . [A] small rubber insert in the back . . . would give ample protection."
Many women, 370, powdered their pads, but just a few used Mum
cream (yes, Mum) or Amolin powder deodorant.
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The copy of the report that I read, which might be unique, rests
in the special collections of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana,
U.S.A. Dr. Gilbreth was the first woman engineering professor at Purdue.
© 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
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