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Other dispensers: Kotex (1920s-1930s) (1960s?) - Modess (1960s?) - Kotex dispenser offer (flyer, 1968)
The museum has many dispensers not on this site.

Home tampon dispenser from Sweden, contemporary


The Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., owns these three sanitary napkin dispensers,
as well as a small, but important, collection of other menstrual hygiene items.

My thanks to Dr. Katherine Ott, of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, for
showing them to two English Ph.D. candidates visiting this museum, and myself, and for helping me obtain these photos!

Other dispensers: Kotex (1920s-1930s) (1960s?) - Modess (1960s?) - Kotex dispenser offer (flyer, 1968)
The museum has many dispensers not on this site.

 

 

 

 

 

detail

 

detail
 Neps probably is from the 1920s, at a time when napkin brands started to multiply. Kotex made a dispenser in the 1920s, probably the first for pads.
 This brand, using the illustration of what to this American looks like a Dutch girl, probably stems from the 1930s. Americans associated the Dutch with propriety and cleanliness, reflected also in Old Dutch Cleanser, a cleaning powder from that era. The Dutch image has become considerably more complex today!
Modess pads had a famous advertising campaign, "Modess . . . . because," which the industry sometimes ridiculed, but which lasted from the 1940s to the 1960s. This dispenser must date from that era. See some print ads from that campaign.

Other dispensers: Kotex (1920s-1930s) (1960s?) - Modess (1960s?) - Kotex dispenser offer (flyer, 1968)

homepageMUM 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
© 1997 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