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See what might be the earliest preserved pad and belt in America (1850s) in the collection of the Valentine Richmond History Center in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.
Sphagnum moss (peat moss) in pads: SFAG-NA-KINS, U.S.A., ads (1919) and box (date?) (neither are in the MUM physical collection) - in Vania Ultra (France), ad, Oct. 1994
See a Modess True
or False? ad in The American Girl
magazine, January 1947, and actress Carol Lynley in
"How Shall I Tell My Daughter" booklet ad
(1955) - Modess . . .
. because ads (many dates).
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"New" Southall's sanitary napkins (towels, diapers) and
"cremator" used to burn used menstrual napkins that
Dr. A. L. Galabin addressed in two articles,
probably end of 19th century
What an honor for the lowly menstrual pad!
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians Dr. Alfred Lewis Galabin, later president of the Obstetrical Society of London, announces below "the new ladies' sanitary towels," more absorbent than the "ordinary diapers," and therefore they would last longer than the ordinary diapers, thereby not being that much more expensive.
Diapers? For babies?
No, no, a pejorative term when used for adults today, the article apparently repeats a old term for what Americans would call today sanitary napkins or pads, the British, towels.
In the late 20th century, Tampax exploits this hold-your-nose usage in two ads, as does an Italian article (and another Tampax ad). Menstrual pads=diapers.
And Americans often used diaper cloth (birdseye) to make their own menstrual pads at least into the 1950s.
Isn't it interesting that technology still works at making pads more absorbent? Super absorbency was just one factor in the toxic shock crisis around 1980.
Southall's name has been familiar to generations of women in the U. K.
Well, we all have to die, even the best. Dr. Galabin's life in his obituary.
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Below: From the Transactions of the Obstetrical Society of London,
vol. 22, p. 188, 1880
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catamenia: menstruation
after confinement: "Hospital pads" were a Modess pad style for decades
washing the usual diapers: see a Kotex ad from 1921
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Below:
Unknown source.
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| It's possible this is the same pad mentioned above but in a different publication.
cremator
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Next: Dr. Galabin's interesting life in a death notice.
See what might be the earliest preserved pad and belt in America (1850s) in the collection of the Valentine Richmond History Center in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.
Sphagnum moss (peat moss) in pads: SFAG-NA-KINS, U.S.A., ads (1919) and box (date?) (neither are in the MUM physical collection) - in Vania Ultra (France), ad, Oct. 1994
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