See more Hartmann
disposable pad ads from the 19th century.
See other early disposable menstrual
pad (towels) ads from the U.K: Southall, Mosana
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THE MUSEUM OF
MENSTRUATION AND WOMEN'S HEALTH
An early - the earliest? -
multinational menstrual napkin: Hartmann's,
and
disposable!
Women could buy the first
widely successful American
disposable menstrual pad in 1921 -
Kotex.
The Kimberly-Clark Company made
bandages from wood pulp
for American soldiers in the First
World War. Nurses in France used
these bandages for menstrual pads,
which they liked because they were
very absorbent, and they were
cheap enough to throw away.
But Kotex
was not the first disposable
pad. In America Curads
(which sells bandages today)
advertised a disposable
pad in Vogue magazine at
least by 1920 (and later), and
Johnson and Johnson made Lister's
Towels in 1896, which lasted until
at least the mid-1920s.
Also in this
last decade of the 19th century
a disposable pad appeared,
Hartmann's, possibly made in
German (see ad below),
decades before the successful
introduction of Camelia, the first
widely successful disposable pad
in Germany, which is still sold
today (just as Kotex was the first
really successful pad in the U.S.A
and is still sold today).
But ads for a Hartmann's pad
also appeared in America (below)
and in the Harrod's of London
catalog for 1895 ("Hartmann's
Hygienic Towelettes for Ladies"),
making
Hartmann possibly the first
multinational pad maker. It's unlikely
that there would be more than
one pad maker named Hartmann in
the 1890s.
Interesting too is the kind of
company that made Mulpa: a bandage factory,
just as Kimberly-Clark was. And
bandages are grouped with
menstrual pads at the Patent
Office in Washington.
Look how small the pads were, if
we can trust the advertising, much
smaller than the average pad of
the day.
Lister's
Towels was probably the
first American disposable.
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A woman in the United Kingdom
generously e-mailed me this scan
of a Hartmann's ad for
"Towelettes" for women (lowest
ad); the British still call
menstrual napkins towels. Note
SAVE WASHING, which indicates to
me that it's disposable. The ad
comes from "The Nurse's Dictionary
of Medical Terms and Nursing
Treatment Compiled for the Use of
Nurses," London: The Scientific
Press. Internal evidence indicates
its date as 1900.
Wood wool seems to be wood
shavings, a common absorbent of
the time. The patent for menstrual
suspenders
here also mentions wood wool. But
a writer sent me this:
Hi.....
I've been reading your
fantastic site, and I noticed
your explanation of "wood
wool" on the page that has the
ad for Hartmann's "sanitary
wood-wool sheets." My husband
is British, and I'm almost
certain that "wood wool" is
not shavings, but rayon. The British
call "wool" anything that
looks like cotton (i.e.,
cotton balls are called
"cotton wool"). And rayon (or
viscose, as it is called in
Britain) has been manufactured
since the 1890s from
wood--cellulose. It is MUCH
more absorbent than cotton,
and for this reason it has
been used in disposable
"feminine hygiene products"
since their earliest
inception: rayon products leak
a lot less, apparently, than
cotton ones (although I've
read that rayon tampons can
leach chemicals into a woman's
body more than cotton
products, especially organic
cotton ones).
Just
thought I'd mention this. I
really doubt wood shavings
would have been used in these
pads--the British would never
have called wood shavings
"wool".
--Jennifer
Matesa
author
of Navel-Gazing:
The Days and Nights of a
Mother in the Making (Random
House, 2001)
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German ad for
Hartmann's disposable pad,
1890s. My translation is,
Hartmann's
Mulpa Ladies' Bandage (legally
protected), singly made in pocket
size! Each pack of six costs 1
Mark. Indispensable for traveling!
Available in all appropriate
stores.
Paul Hartmann Bandage Factory,
Heidenheim a. Br. [Heidenheim an
der Brenz, a fact kindly supplied
by a German site visitor. And the
company exists today.]
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The WWs ad appeared
in the August and October issues,
1896, of the (American) Woman's
World and Jenness Miller Monthly.
This ad is a
copy of a copy of the original,
thus the quality, reproduced
from
"Menstrual technology in the
United States, 1854 to 1921," by
Laura Klosterman Kidd, 1994
(Ph.D. dissertation).
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See more Hartmann
disposable pad ads from the 19th century.
See other
early disposable menstrual pad (towels)
ads from the U.K: Southall,
Mosana
Washable
pads - Menstrual
sponge - Swedish
advertisement for a
belt and pad and adhesive pad
Suspenders
for holding pads (U.S.A., 19th century)
© 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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