Read the main Hartmann page
and see similar early U.K. towels (menstrual pads) by Mosana.
 
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THE MUSEUM OF MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
Early disposable menstrual napkin: Southall's
Ads from the United Kingdom, 1888 - 1913 (American
Southall's ads follow on the next pages from a different contributor)
Assuming the date 1888 is correct, this is maybe the first disposable pad, earlier
than Hartmann. But information keeps appearing
so the final story has not yet been written.
The company early used an apostrophe in two different
positions - see below - but today uses none.
Read the main Hartmann page and see similar
early U.K. towels (menstrual pads) by Mosana.
In July 2008 the loyal Dutch contributor
of items to this site wrote:
I want to add to your discussion about when the
first commercially sanitary napkins appears on the market in the States
or Europe, see your page http://mum.org/southall.htm [this page].
I think the date of 1888 of the Southall's is correct. From the book
"The Worm in the Bud. The World of Victorian
Sexuality" by Ronald Pearsall (first published in 1969), chapter
5: The facts of life, paragraph Menstruation, page 271 (Penguin books):
The makers of sanitary towels were faced with the problem of how to advertise them [a problem the makers of
perhaps the earliest American maker of pads had].
The principal manufacturers, Southall Brothers and Barclay of Birmingham,
often selected the oddest sites for their advertisements;
the desire to avoid offending sensibilities had run riot. Surely there
can have been few more unlikely spots than the Antiquary of July 1888,
in which Southall Brothers took a third of the back cover. The advertisement
was addressed in large sans serif letters to 'Ladies
Travelling by Land or Sea' [see the ads below]
and the items were 'patented Articles of Underclothing, Indispensable to
Ladies Travelling. Sold at Cost of washing Only! To burn when done with.
This fits exactly with the same sort of ad you put on your site, so
I think the date you were given of 1888 is correct.
NB: I don't agree with Pearsall about the unlikely spot. Women who
could afford the advertised sanitary towels were not working-class women
but ladies in the true sense of word: with
plenty of time, not the right to work (after all the Victorian world, no
suffragettes at that time) but arts, doing good to the working class (Red
Cross, church work) etc. were acceptable.
I have reasons to believe this is not the first year of production
of Southall Brothers. The ad on your site suggests that the company was
well organized, has the praise of medical professionals (doctors, nurses),
has a department run by only women and so on. It suggests more years of
production, etc. Also maybe the first trading was via the shops, druggist
etc. from woman to woman and not advertising in journals, etc.
Maybe 1881 is the first year of production. I will try to prove it:
I send you with this email a scan of a two-page ad with the title "Have you ever wondered how men would carry on if they
had periods?" The ad is for Dr White's towels and tampons. This
is the same company of the 1888 advertisement, Southall Brothers. The ad
appeared in April 1985 in a leading women's magazine of the UK, Company.
The ad itself is humorous with British style, with a man clad only
in women's lingerie . . . . Interesting is the claim they make: "After
104 years in the business, we aren't naive enough . . . ." If you
subtract 104 from 1985, you have 1881!!
I am absolutely sure about the year of publication of the ad. I have
more ads with the moons in the corners of the same year (e.g. the Liechtenstein
ad with the man thinking: "I just hope, my darling, that this will
last forever" ... and the woman thinking: "I just hope this towel
lasts till I get home" of October 1985 in the other leading UK woman
magazine, She).
So the successors of Southall Brothers claim they were in the business
of female hygiene from 1881 onwards!
Maybe you can ask readers from the UK to comment on this!!
And also: maybe German readers have information about the first years
of production of Hartmann!
I thank the Web site sensationpress.com, a good source of Victorian pulp fiction and other Victoriana,
for allowing me to use their scans of these British ads!
I thank Ben for the scans of the American ads!
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All images and information come from, with permission,
the Web site sensationpress.com
Below: from a paperback novel published
by the Hansom Cab Company, about 1888. The donor photographed the ad at
an angle, thus the distortion, which I corrected somewhat.
In the ads below there's a constant comparison to the cost of washing -
meaning washable pads.
When other information is lacking that indicates the pad is disposable.
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Below: from a weekly magazine, 1894
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Below: from a paperback novel published
by the Amalgamated Press, about 1902
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Below: From a Newnes sixpenny paperback
novel, about 1905
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Below: From a magazine published
in 1913
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© 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
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