See belts and pads on mannequins at MUM, actual belts in this museum, Hickory-brand belts, sanitary panties offered by Modess in the 1960s, and Underwear in the Directory. Also, other Personal Digest booklets, How shall I tell my daughter? booklets, Growing Up and Liking It booklets, and Lynn Peril's article about menarche and similar booklets.
HOMEPAGE
CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
Some MUM site links:
HOMEPAGE |
LIST OF ALL TOPICS |
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 |
Bidets |
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 |
Examination, gynecological (pelvic) (short history) |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
Famous women in menstrual hygiene ads |
FAQ |
Feminine napkin, towel, pad directory |
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, towel, napkin 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 |
Sanitary napkin, towel, pad directory |
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) |
Towel, pad, sanitary napkin directory |
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.

Personal Digest Leaflet (Personal Products, 1966, U.S.A.)
Menstrual pads, belts, panties & household advice

Below is a Personal Digest leaflet from 1966, published by Personal Products, maker of Modess menstrual pads.. The sanitary belt and panty industry in the United States almost disappeared in the early 1970s because of the introduction of adhesive menstrual pads, which stick to the crotch of panties with an adhesive strip. Millions of women breathed a sigh of relief. But Kotex reintroduced a disposable panty recently (1998), I'm sure in response to a real need. Menstruation can be unexpected and messy. Men are lucky in many ways.

Pads attached to belts twisted easily (that's called "roping") and moved out of place. The pads chaffed women's legs and vulvas (see the Dickinson Report from 1945). Pads in that earlier era were thick and long (up to 20", almost 51 cm). The original Kotex pad (with tabs for pinning onto a belt or clothing) from 1921 was 22" long (almost 56 cm.)!

Companies and catalogs sold scores of kinds of belts from at least the last century to the present day. The Sears, Roebuck catalog even once offered a fancy trousseau sanitary napkin belt, I assume to be given to a woman about to marry! Here are some belts the museum owns.

See covers of, and links to, more Personal Digests.

I thank the former Tambrands, maker of Tampax tampons, for the Personal Digest leaflets!


Below: The two sides of the 4-panel, 10 7/8 x 4 1/2" (27.5 x 11.4 cm) paper leaflet.
When folded, the lady with the receiver (far right, top) appears on front.
See Meds tampons from this era and some Modess sanitary panties (and others): Modess "Sanitary Shield," Modess "Panti-kini,"
Kotex "Panti," and all underpants on this site.
 
Below: Belts on this site including Modess. See how women wore them.
 

NEXT Personal Digest leaflet and covers of many. See belts and pads on mannequins at MUM, actual belts in this museum, Hickory-brand belts, sanitary panties offered by Modess in the 1960s, and Underwear in the directory.
 
© 2008 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