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The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health
Ads for menstrual
pad holders
Sears, Roebuck catalog, probably late
1930s-early 1940s
Sometime at the end of the 1930s or early 1940s
the American company Sears, Roebuck printed
these offerings in the middle of page 709 in the
"notions" section, the Merriam-Webster
dictionary defining notions as "small useful
items," which they certainly were and are.
I thank
the anonymous donor of the
scan!
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Below: This is
the whole page, or what's's left of it, in a
Sears, Roebuck catalog from the late 1930s
or early 1940s. You see the middle
section
next,
having already carefully
examined and thought about the top section several
weeks ago. Er, right?
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Below: As
promised, the middle section of the page.
Oxidation discolored it.
Wikipedia writes this about the faintly orange
color tea rose (written tearose below), a new one to
your MUM:
"This color is popular in interior design for
painting bedrooms, especially among women."
Every one
but two of these items is tearose. The
exceptions are white.
"NUVO"'s
appearance is right out of the art déco style book,
which helps date this page.
"Simplox"
is too close to "SimPLOPS" for comfort but it's
the key to "locks,"
showing that the wearer allegedly
locked the pad to the belt, not pinned it.
Pins often came with belts (see Lastex).
Tampax and other tampons
famously
assured women that they wouldn't have to
use pins with its discharge absorber.
See the lock
enlarged below the large page.
And see another "lox,"
this one assuring users the thing won't fall out
of her vagina.
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Below: The Simplox "lock"
enlarged. It's a shame the smallest words aren't
decipherable.
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All of these
devices endured
for decades in modified form. See
more belts, panties and shields.
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© 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
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