Modess (Johnson & Johnson, U.S.A.) 1927 Gilbreth report to Johnson & Johnson about Modess - newspaper ads 1927-28 - "Silent Purchase" ad, June 1928 - ad, 1928 - ad, April 1929 ("Don't weaken, Mother") - ad, June 1929 ("Never mind, Mother, you'll learn") - ad about concealing pad, 1930 - ad compared with Kotex ad, 1931 - ad, 1931 - wrapped Modess pad for dispenser, 1930s? - Ad, U.K., 1936 - True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947 - Australian ad, 1957 - ad (1956) with "Modess . . . . because" ad incorporated into it - ad for "Growing Up and Liking It" booklet (1963, Modess) - actress Carol Lynley in "How shall I tell my daughter?" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates) - French ad, 1970s? - ad, French, 1972, photo by David Hamilton - Personal Digest leaflets (6), 1966-67: describe Modess products - How Modess Sanitary Napkins Began: excerpts from"A Company That Cares: One Hundred Year Illustrated History of Johnson and Johnson"
Growing Up and Liking It (complete booklets: 1944, 1949, 1957, 1964, 1970, 1972, The Personal Products Company, U.S.A.) (many covers, 1944-1978)
Booklets menstrual hygiene companies made for girls, women and teachers - patent medicine - a list of books and articles about menstruation - videos
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.

How Shall I Tell My Daughter? Puberty & menstruation information for mothers to tell daughters
1954, Personal Products Company (Modess), U.S.A.
Complete booklet

Of all the puberty booklets on this site I think the paintings in this booklet best capture the intimate, thoughtful, yes, somber, mood that mother and daughter might share when discussing menstruation for the first time - ideally, anyway, since I'm given to understand that this kind of discussion is the exception by far. You see none of the - forced? - cheerfulness of many of the other booklets (for example, Growing up and liking it, 1957) that seems at odds with the jolt many girls experience and with the embarrassment of the mothers. But it does share a well-to-do flavor (see the grand piano) with that 1957 booklet although not the anatomical diagrams. And mothers and children are white with one possible exception.

The quiet tone of these paintings, by American Alexander Brook (1898-1980, signature), reminds me of Raphael Soyer's paintings (scroll down beneath the cover page, below), an American who lived almost exactly the years Brook did (1899-1989). Both were New Yorkers and show a gritty stillness. Edward Hopper's famously quiet paintings from roughly the same era show the same isolation (sample below) - and Hopper was also a New Yorker. Askart.com has this to say about Brook:

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Alexander Brook was a realist painter, whose works consisted mostly of still-life subjects, landscapes, and figures, often of women [emphasis added]. He was very successful in his day, winning second prize to Picasso's first prize at the Carnegie Institute International Exhibition of Modern Painting in 1930.

I had never heard of this artist (and I'm a painter) until a Dutch father of many daughters (and who had also not heard of him before this seeing this booklet), who contributed these scans (and many other items to MUM), wrote me the following:

I think, speaking of famous persons in relation with advertising menstrual stuff, this is a fine piece of work of Brook for his time. Nowadays people maybe find him somewhat depressing but I like his paintings.

Page 16: that little girl with the huge Modess box, if you are not already scared about menstruation you will be the moment when your mother hands over that box to you.

Personal Products Company, besides making menstrual pads, also published booklets explaining menstruation and puberty for girls and their parents (well, mothers), as did other companies, such as Kimberly-Clark (Kotex; sample booklets here) and Tampax tampons (here).
See the ad the teenage Carol Lynley, later an actress, made for these booklets, and see other ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1933), Tampax tampons (1970, with Susan Dey) and German o.b. tampons (lower ad, 1981); and Stayfree (U.S.A., the Netherlands) ad with Olympic gymnast Cathy Rigby (1982).
See also Personal Digest and Growing up and liking it from the same company, and Lynn Peril's article about such booklets.
See Modess belts here, the famous Modess ad campaign and how Modess sanitary napkins began.
This booklet is meant for mothers.
See the complete 1963 edition. See the list of all such booklets on this site.
The companion Growing Up and Liking It booklets (complete: 1944, 1949, 1957, 1964, 1970, 1972, The Personal Products Company, U.S.A.) (many covers, 1944-1978)
How shall I tell my daughter? [Daughter in the 1969 edition] (complete booklets, 1963, 1969, Personal Products Co.) See covers of Modess booklets. Excerpt about how to fasten a pad to a belt and about sanitary panties & a funny story from the 1969 booklet.
Modess (Johnson & Johnson, U.S.A.) 1927 Gilbreth report to Johnson & Johnson about Modess - newspaper ads 1927-28 - "Silent Purchase" ad, June 1928 - ad, 1928 - ad, April 1929 ("Don't weaken, Mother") - ad, June 1929 ("Never mind, Mother, you'll learn") - ad about concealing pad, 1930 - ad compared with Kotex ad, 1931 - ad, 1931 - wrapped Modess pad for dispenser, 1930s? - Ad, U.K., 1936 - True or False? ad in The American Girl magazine, January 1947 - Australian ad, 1957 - ad (1956) with "Modess . . . . because" ad incorporated into it - ad for "Growing Up and Liking It" booklet (1963, Modess) - actress Carol Lynley in "How shall I tell my daughter?" booklet ad (1955) - Modess . . . . because ads (many dates) - French ad, 1970s? - ad, French, 1972, photo by David Hamilton - Personal Digest leaflets (6), 1966-67: describe Modess products - How Modess Sanitary Napkins Began: excerpts from"A Company That Cares: One Hundred Year Illustrated History of Johnson and Johnson"
I thank the Dutch contributor of these scans, father of many daughters.

Below: Front cover. Each page measures about 6.5 x 8.25" (16.5 cm x 21 cm). The back cover is
blank except for "lithographed in U.S.A." in tiny print.
   
Below, left: Raphael Soyer, Girl in Blue, from
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Below: right: Alexander Brook, Amalia, from
Askart.com. Brook illustrated this booklet.
   
Below: Edward Hopper, Chop Suey (detail), from artchive.com. Compare the silence of this with many of the illustrations in this booklet. I find Hopper unnerving when I see many of his paintings in a short period of time; his 2007 show at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, creeped me out unlike the Japanese art at the nearby Sackler and Freer galleries, which was (and is) often luscious eye candy, the epitome of retinal art for me.
 


NEXT cover inside front cover-1 2-3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14-15 16-17 18-19 20-inside back cover
More How shall I tell my daughter?: 1981, 1963, 1969. See covers of Modess booklets. Excerpt about how to fasten a pad to a belt and about sanitary panties & a funny story from the 1969 booklet. The companion Growing Up and Liking It booklets (complete: 1944, 1949, 1957, 1964, 1970, 1972, The Personal Products Company, U.S.A.) (many covers, 1944-1978)
 

© 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