See also Personal Digest and Growing up and liking it from the same company, and Lynn Peril's article about such booklets.
Read most of a 1928 Australian edition of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday. Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (1935) - Facts About Menstruation that every Woman should know (1936) - Marjorie May, introductory page, 1935 main page
Read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets! And see the covers of the booklets How shall I tell my daughter?, Growing up and liking it, and Personal Digest; read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
Marjorie May, three booklets, 1935 main page
Read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets! And see the covers of the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? and Personal Digest; read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
See a Kotex ad advertising this booklet.
See Kotex items: First ad (1921; scroll to bottom of page) - ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller ads (first real person in a menstrual hygiene ad, 1928) - Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (booklet for girls, 1928, Australian edition; there are many links here to Kotex items) - Preparing for Womanhood (1920s, booklet for girls; Australian edition) - 1920s booklet in Spanish showing disposal method - box from about 1969 - "Are you in the know?" ads (Kotex) (1949)(1953)(1964)(booklet, 1956) - See more ads on the Ads for Teenagers main page
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? | 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 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, current | puberty booklets for girls and parents | religion | Religión y menstruación | your remedies for menstrual discomfort | menstrual products safety | science | Seguridad de productos para la menstruación | 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
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

This one-page excerpt from the 1969 version of the Personal Products Company booklet How Shall I Tell My Daughter? shows part of what mothers, if they could bring themselves to do it, were expected to tell their daughters about menstruation, menstrual pads, tampons and puberty. Read the complete booklet.

The reason I show this page is that two years ago, in 1995, a visitor to this museum, a physician's wife in her sixties, sat frozen next to some mannequins wearing "sanitary panties." She had brought her enthusiastic niece to MUM, who was videotaping it for a college project while we talked.

Steadfastly avoiding the mannequins, the girl's aunt explained that she had to wear those kind of underpants when she was a girl, and hated them. She also said that the subject of menstruation, and indeed the very word, was never mentioned by either her or her internist husband to each other during their long marriage.

As for the red dot I added above to point out the sentence next to it: It seems likely that at least a few daughters would not be delighted to learn about special panties, or belts, or any other thing about menstruation. See the panties and napkin belts that Modess offered at about this time.


Read the complete booklet. See also Personal Digest and Growing up and liking it from the same company, and Lynn Peril's article about such booklets.

© 2007 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the
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