More Camelia ads:
1920s (Germany), 1930s (Germany), 1940/42 (Germany, with underpants made from sugar sacks, 1945/46), 1952 (Australia), 1970s (France), 1990 (Germany) - Underpants directory
Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine - a list of books and articles about menstruation - videos
What did American and European women use in the past for menstruation?
See also How shall I tell my daughter? and Personal Digest and read the whole booklet As One Girl to Another (Kotex, 1940).
See a Kotex ad advertising a Marjorie May booklet.
See many more similar booklets.
See ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1932), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey), Personal Products (1955, with Carol Lynley), and German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1981)
See also the booklets How shall I tell my daughter? (Modess, various dates), and Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates)
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets!
Read the full text of the 1935 Canadian edition of Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday, probably identical to the American edition.
Is this the first Tampax tampon? Go to Early Commercial Tampons
Other early commercial tampons - Main Tampax patent - Ad from 1936 - World War II Tampax sign
More ads for teens (see also introductory page for teenage advertising): Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and Quest napkin powder, 1948, U.S.A.), Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1949, U.S.A.)Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins, 1953, U.S.A.), Are you in the know? (Kotex napkins and belts, 1964, U.S.A.), Freedom (1990, Germany), Kotex (1992, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Pursettes (1974, U.S.A.), Saba (1975, Denmark)
See early tampons and a list of tampon on this site - at least the ones I've cataloged.
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.

Camelia disposable menstrual napkin, cardboard ad from a former drugstore in Saxony, Germany, 1936-37

This beautiful ad consists of two pieces: a cardboard background and another piece of cut-out cardboard - the ladies, box and information at the bottom - that casts a real shadow on the landscape. It's 700 x 950 x 6 millimeters (roughly 2'4" x 3'1" x 1/4"). German drugstore windows today are still often riveting.

Hiking - wandern in German - has always been popular in Germany, at least in the last 100 years.

I spent most Saturdays from 1974 to 1984 hiking in the hills around Heidelberg, walking paths marked with stones sometimes chiseled with dates from the 1700s. We could hear cuckoos in the silence - they sounded just like the clocks!

Just a half hour from the oldest university in today's Germany we could cross a river the Romans sailed and amble through the unattended, wrecked rooms of a medieval monastery that perched on top of a hill a short walk from an amphitheater that enclosed band concerts by the Nazis.

Down the river within an hour's walk loomed castle after castle, guarding the approaches from forgotten invaders or making them pay tribute. I once compiled 1500 note cards on the construction of German castles with the idea of making a booklet a Wandererin could slip into her back pocket. It would enable her to roughly date any ruin and figure out what the features were. (But after 2 years I lost confidence and tossed the cards.)

Most of Germany's 15,000 or so castles are deserted and half rubble. You can even buy many of them if you fix them up.

But, wonder of wonders, I've wandered from menstruation!

I gleaned the picture and information from the catalog "Menstruation: Monatshygiene im Wandel von 1900 bis heute," Text und Katalog: Sabine Zinn-Thomas und Walter Stolle. Eine Ausstellung des Hessischen Landesmuseums Darmstadt in der Außenstelle Lorsch, 26.11.1998 bis 31.7.1999. My translation: "Menstruation: Changing menstrual hygiene [in Germany, mostly] from 1900 to today [1998]." Text and catalog: Sabine Zinn-Thomas and Walter Stolle. An exhibition of the Hessian State Museum, Darmstadt, in the branch at Lorsch, from November 26, 1998 to July 31, 1999.

I translate the text as: "A [really 'The,' but that doesn't sound right in English] woman doesn't need to hold back! A woman who wants to keep healthy and youthful needs movement! She takes care also that she's not hindered for c. 60 days a year because she knows the advantages of Camelia. Camelia, the ideal reform menstrual pad." "Reform" in Germany means something that's improved through careful thought; the word decorates many stores and product descriptions in Germany, even today. Camelia is a Reform product because it's disposable, not like the old-fashioned German washable pad.
Many drugstores in Germany still show ads in large windows; the stores in my area of the U.S.A. seem to have abandoned window advertising. Maybe it's because people seldom walk anymore - they drive.
See a close-up of the box and woman in the picture on the box - and read her story.
More Camelia ads:
1920s (Germany), 1930s (Germany), 1940/42 (Germany, with underpants made from sugar sacks, 1945/46), 1952 (Australia), 1970s (France), 1990 (Germany) - Underpants directory

© 2006 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute any of the work on this Web site in any manner or
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