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

MUM address & What does MUM mean? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation (and awesome ancient art of menstruation)|
Artists (non-menstrual) |
Asbestos |
Belts |
Birth control and religion |
Birth control drugs, old |
Birth control douche & sponges |
Founder bio |
Bly, Nellie |
MUM board |
Books: menstruation & menopause (& reviews) |
Cats |
Company booklets for girls (mostly) directory |
Contraception and religion |
Contraceptive drugs, old |
Contraceptive douche & sponges |
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.


The Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health
Former museum–Future–Comic strip about a visit to the museum

Site directory for underwear (panties, underpants, briefs) for menstruation & daily wear

Women have used underpants-like clothing to hold pads in place since at least the early part of the twentieth century. Before the crotch was closed, and even afterwards - underpants consisted of two tubes of cloth joined at the waist before then - women had to find a way to hold a menstruation-absorbing cloth against their body (unless they used a tampon, sponge or some other material, assuming they used anything at all. But that's another story.)

Read a very short history of European underpants from about 1700-1900.
The list is chronological - top items are the oldest - if that can be determined.
Site directories for tampons, early American tampons, pads, and ads for teens.

Historic underwear below

Chemise (Hemd, "shirt," in German) the undergarment worn by women, men and children in Europe for probably much of the past thousand years or more in Europe.
Open-crotch underpants for a doll (German or French), about 1830
German open-crotch underpants (Unterhosen) for attaching a menstrual pad (1888, drawing)
Early 20th-century Japanese ads for menstrual underpants (from publications)
Open-crotch drawers (underpants), 1890s (U.S.A., from MUM collection)
"Bikini" underpants from the 1912 Olympics (photo at bottom of page)

Menstrual pad (Kotex?) and holder (1920s-1930s?, Canada)

Open- and closed-crotch drawers (underpants), 1922 (ads from the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, U.S.A.)
"Sanitary Bloomers," (underpants), 1922 (ad from Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, U.S.A.)
Various underpants, panties, 1928 (page from Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, U.S.A.)
Step-in underpants, Hickory, 1928 (ad from Vanity Fair magazine, U.S.A.)
Variety of underpants from the Savage catalog, 1930, U.S.A.
German menstrual underpants, 1933, from the Thalysia catalog
First Sears everyday briefs (nonmenstrual underpants), 1935 (ad from Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, U.S.A.)
German underpants (Unterhosen) made from American sugar sack twine (1945/46)
Various underpants and panties (and sanitary napkin belts), 1946-47 (page from Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog, U.S.A.)
COMFO-GARD "pantie" (ad, 1950s?, Malen Mfg. Co., U.S.A.)

Kleinert's Sani-Scants panties (1950s, U.S.A.)

German brief panty (German: Slip, Unterhosen) for menstruation (about 1960)
Kleinert's briefs, panties (ads, 1960s, U.S.A.)
Various panties, 1960s (part of Personal Digest, Modess, U.S.A.)
Pursettes tampon panty, 1968 (U.S.A.)
Modess "Sanitary Shield" (two-band pad holder in crotch; 1970s; U.S.A.)
German menstrual underpants (Monatshöschen) from the Neckermann catalog, 1970s
Kotex New Freedom towel & pantie ad (date? publication? U.K.)
Modess "Panti-kini" (two-band holder to hold pad in crotch; 1960s-1970s, U.S.A.)
Kotex bikini napkin holder (1960s-1970s)
Kotex "Panti" (clasp and band to hold pad in crotch; 1970s?, U.S.A.)
Nikini pads and briefs, 2 ads (U.K., 1970s?)
Nikini pads and pants, 1 ad (U.K., 1974)
SheShells bikini panty (snap open at sides; no special crotch; possibly for menstrual pads or tampons, 1970s, U.S.A.) together with an ad for it.
Zero Pantees, 1980s (ad in unknown magazine; disposable; for women, men and children, United Kingdom). Morning Glory, above, also used "pantee."
German menstrual panties with tabbed and reinforced crotch, early 1990s
Kotex Personals Protective Panties & ad (U.S.A., 1995)

Copyright 2012 Harry Finley