SEE many washable pads: Contemporary Snap-on style washable pad, Washable pad with belt. a menstrual sponge, a modern, beautiful bowl to soak used menstrual pads in. Washable pads from Almora, Uttar Pradesh state, India and Rajasthan state, India - Nineteenth-century Norwegian washable pads - Italian washable pad, probably from the 1890s - instructions for making Japanese pads, early 20th century? - German, about 1900 - 1902 & 1908, U.S.A. - German washable pads and belt, with case (about 1935-40)
Kotex ad emphasizing shame, 1992
See ads for Pursettes: September 1972 (letter testimonial) - August 1973 (letter testimonial) - February 1974 (cartoon story) - August 1974 (cartoon story) - October 1974 (cartoon story) See a 1965 ad for a Pursettes school educational kit - Pursettes Getting to Know Yourself booklet for girls - other teaching booklets: Growing Up and Liking It and How Shall I Tell My Daughter?
See Kotex items: First ad (1921) - 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.

Did women send washable menstrual pads to special laundries?
Newspaper evidence, 1909, U.S.A.

We know that at least some American women wore washable menstrual pads (see three Norwegian washables from the 19th century) in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially before Kotex started (early 1920s). Someone washed the cloth pads and dried them, to be worn again.

But who washed them? It probably wasn't a pleasant business for most women - see a riveting Kotex ad from 1921 - and I assumed most women washed them themselves; the rich left them to a servant, as in the Kotex ad.

But the help-wanted ad, below, makes me wonder if some women sent them to special companies to wash.

Did "Sanitary Towel Laundry Company" mean a company that washed towels used to dry hands and bodies, sanitary describing the healthful process and result, or a laundry that washed reusable menstrual pads?

In a menstrual context "sanitary towel" means a menstrual pad, a sanitary napkin. The ads below the help-wanted ad show this usage in America and Great Britain. (Read more words and phrases for pads and menstruation.)

I believe the Magdalene laundries in Ireland and England washed menstrual pads; undoubtedly other laundries did also.

If this ad means menstrual pads I wonder how common these laundries were.

Can anyone help with this problem?

Yes, someone can! Ben Truwe e-mailed me that his newspaper research located similar ads, including

I just reviewed a bunch of old ads for the Sanitary Towel Laundry of Lincoln, Nebraska, and a lot of ads were like the one you have on your web site. A few, however, instead of just looking for "girls," were looking for "jacket ironers," mangle (ironing machine) girls, and girls with sewing experience. So it sounds like STL wasn't laundering sanitary napkins.

BUT . . . the MOST compelling evidence that they weren't laundering sanitary napkins is the fact that I just searched the phrase "sanitary towel" through the hundreds of thousands of newspaper pages newspaperarchive.com has indexed for the years 1908 through 1910, and the ONLY use of that phrase, in any context, was by the Sanitary Towel Laundry in Lincoln, Nebraska. It doesn't appear in ads, it doesn't appear in the names of other companies in other cities who are washing sanitary napkins. Inescapably, "sanitary towel" meant a clean towel and nothing else in 1908 through 1910.

I again thank the kind genealogy researcher and retired teacher who found this interesting ad!

Below: See the second ad; from the Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, Dec. 17, 1909.
 
Below: these ads show American usage of the term sanitary towel, the left one the year before the above help-wanted ad.
Below left: from the Sears, Roebuck catalog of 1908. Right: from November 21, 1921, Oakland [California] Tribune. The apostrophe should stand between the r and s. See more early washable pad and belt ads, and more about America's first disposable pad, Lister's.
Bottom: English brand disposable pads ad from a Newnes sixpenny paperback novel, about 1905. See more Southall's.
   
 
SEE many washable pads: Contemporary Snap-on style washable pad, Washable pad with belt. a menstrual sponge, a modern, beautiful bowl to soak used menstrual pads in. Washable pads from Almora, Uttar Pradesh state, India and Rajasthan state, India - Nineteenth-century Norwegian washable pads - Italian washable pad, probably from the 1890s - instructions for making Japanese pads, early 20th century? - German, about 1900 - 1902 & 1908, U.S.A. - German washable pads and belt, with case (about 1935-40)
First Kotex ad (1921) - Kotex ad 1928 (Sears and Roebuck catalog) - Lee Miller Kotex ads (first real person in a menstrual hygiene ad, 1928)

See ads for menarche-education booklets: Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1933), 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), Growing up and liking it (Modess, various dates), and Marjorie May's Twelfth Birthday (Kotex, 1928).
And read Lynn Peril's series about these and similar booklets!
See another ad for As One Girl to Another (1942), and the booklet itself.
© 2006 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