The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health


Former museum–FutureComic strip about a visit to the museum


HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:

MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation |
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Bidets |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Costumes |
Menstrual cups |
Cup usage |
Dispensers |
Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
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 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 |
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) |
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.
  Miscellaneous topics on this site

Advertising, nonmenstrual

Ice Fresh breath freshener (United Kingdom, June 1987, Company magazine)

Lucky Strike cigarettes (U.S.A., 1933, magazine unknown)

Old Dutch Cleanser (U.S.A., 1933, magazine unknown)

Comic strips

"Sylvia" (by Nicole Hollander), about this museum (5 August 1995)

"Frauen gemeinsam," (Common to women), about menstrual sychronization, Germany, Brigitte magazine, 1992

"Single," the Netherlands, 31 October 2005,
by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit

Contraception, birth control & STD (sexually transmitted diseases) treatment

Abortion through the mail: Four 1933 American ads for (illegal) birth control

A short history of contraception and religion - Egyptian hieroglyphics from about 1550 B.C.E. describing a tampon used for contraception -

Australian douche ads (about 1900)in the "Wife's Guide and Friend": The Australian government prosecuted this publication for being obscene because it advertised contraceptives and contained birth control information -

Fresca douche powder (early 20th century, U.S.A.); the label contains language possibly hinting at contraceptive use -

Selections from the first American edition of Married Love (first published 1918), Dr. Marie Stopes' book that was long banned in America. Dr. Stopes founded the first birth-control clinic in the British Empire, in 1921, and it's still running.
See also early contraceptive sponges disguised for other uses. Ad for Ergoapiol, treatment for painful or missing menstrual periods or other irregularities of the menstrual cycle - or for abortion, 1904.

Patent medicine at this museum.

Enovid (U.S.A.) birth-control pill package & directions (1964) with booklet Planning Your Family (also 1964) addressed to married women, not single.

Pro-Fo Lactic (U.S.A., 1930-40s?) Either a contraceptive or treatment for STDs (sexually transmitted diseases), or both. Ointment with a bag to contain penis.

Control of Conception: An Illustrated Manual (excerpt)
Medical Aspects of Human Fertility Series Issued by the
National Committee on Maternal Health, Inc. (which Dr. Dickinson helped found)
Book by Robert Latou Dickinson, M.D. & Louise Stevens Bryant, 1931/32, U.S.A.

Prophylactic and Contraceptive Products that May be Sold
in Oregon by Legally Licensed Outlets during the Year 1957

Brochure
(Oregon Board of Pharmacy, U.S.A., February, 1957)

Disposal bags for menstrual pads Bags from around the world
Exhibits about menstruation

"Appears Monthly" ("Verschijnt maandeliks"), newspaper article about & one-page announcement of Dutch exhibit, 1982, with English translations

Longer tour of the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health in Harry Finley's suburban Washington, D.C. house, 1994-98. Photos, some people who visited, the lead-in to plans for the museum's future

Different, shorter tour of Museum of Menstruation in Harry Finley's house (that's me), 1994-1998, in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Photos, why I closed it, etc.

Norwegian exhibit about menstruation & the company history of the Scandinavian tampon and menstrual pad company SCA Mølnlycke, 1994

Festival, menstruation, 1988, Germany One-sheet announcement in German with English translation. Possibly a commercial undertaking (for a dance teacher)
Food PMS Crunch snack
Hysteria Lydia Pinkham's Private Text-Book Upon Ailments Peculiar to Women
Magazines, nonmenstrual topics

Love Mirror cover (U.S.A.,1932)

The American Girl (the Girl Scout magazine) joke page (June 1936) showing ethnic jokes about Swedes, Irishmen and blacks

Masturbation, male and female

Results of and warning about: The Science of a New Life, by John Cowan, M. D., 1875 (U.S.A) - Plain Facts for Old and Young: Embracing the Natural History and Hygiene of Organic Life, by J. H. Kellogg, M. D., 1892 (U.S.A.) - Dr. R. V. Pierce's "Spermatorrhea" section of The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser (63rd edition, 1895, U.S.A.) - also in The Sexual System and Its Derangements, by Dr. E. C. Abbey, 1882 (U.S.A.) - Sexology, by Prof. William H. Walling, A.M., M.D. (1912, Puritan Publishing Company, Philadelphia) - Gynecology, by Howard A. Kelly, 1928 (U.S.A.) - Rachel Maines wrote a book about doctors' masturbating their patients, male and female, as a treatment, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the long history of midwives masturbating their patients, etc.: The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction (Johns Hopkins Press, 1999, U.S.A.)

Was famous patent medicine doctor Dr. Pierce, an opponent of masturbation (common in America & elsewhere), a hypocrite about the subject?

Menarche (first menstruation) Age in different cultures
Menotoxin the alleged poison associated with menstruation

A short history

Menstrual toxin: An old name for a real thing? by Dr. Nelson Soucasaux

Menstrual Hygiene and Management in Developing Countries: Taking Stock, November 2004, report by Sowmyaa Bharadwaj and Archana Patkar

 
Mikvah ritual bath after menstruation for Orthodox Jews

18th century engraving

1260, Friedberg, Germany, plan (1902)

Menstrual wave An apt 19th and early 20th century description of the effect of hormones on a woman's body during the menstrual cycle.
Myths from "Magic and Medicine in Menstruation," 1934, booklet from Schering Corp.
Newspapers Rochester (New York, U.S.A.) Patriot, articles from 1975-76 aggressively investigating the just-introduced Rely tampon, which was later (1979-80) associated with toxic shock syndrome (TSS)

Rectal dilators

Dr. Young's Improved Rectal Dilators for the Auxiliary Treatment of Piles and Constipation
(U.S.A., 1900?-1940?)
Sex manuals

Married Love, by Dr. Marie Stopes (1931, first American edition, Putnam's Sons, New York)

Sex Facts for Women, by Richard J. Lambert, Ph.G. [sic?], M.D. (1936, Padell Book Company, New York, New York)

Slapping a daughter when she first menstruates, in Jewish tradition
(La Tradición [Judía] de Abofetear a Nuestras Hijas)

The Tradition of Slapping Our Daughters, by Caren Appel-Slingbaum (Leer la versión en español traducido por María García)

Questionnaire for you about slapping, by Lana Thompson

The Society for Menstrual Cycle Research conference (1997) See some stars of menstruation!!
Suspenders to hold pads (here are belts) 19th century U.S.A.: three patents and ad for Mrs. Smith's Universal Bandage Suspender
Tampon case carrier

Vinnie's (1999, U.S.A.)

Pursettes (1960s? U.S.A.)

Wax teaching corpse of woman probably 18th century Italian (not in this museum)
What did women do about menstruation in the past? In 19th century Europe and America (and maybe before)


homepage | MUM address & What does MUM mean? | e-mail the museum | privacy on this site | who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! | the art of menstruation | artists (non-menstrual) | asbestos | belts | bidets | founder bio | Bly, Nellie | MUM board | books: menstruation and menopause (and reviews) | cats | company booklets directory | contraception and religion | costumes | menstrual cups | cup usage | dispensers | douches, pain, sprays | essay directory | extraction | famous women in menstrual hygiene ads | FAQ | founder/director biography | humor | huts | links | masturbation | media coverage of MUM | miscellaneous | museum future | Norwegian menstruation exhibit | odor (olor)| pad directory | patent medicine | poetry directory | products, current | religion | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | shame | slapping, menstrual | sponges | synchrony | tampon directory | early tampons | teen ads directory | tour of the former museum (video) | underpants 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

© 1999 - 2012 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