Dutch booklet for menarcheal girls - Early Dutch Tampax ads - Early Dutch booklet for Camelia pads - Dutch exhibit about menstruation, 1982 (article) - Dutch Nefa menstrual pad ads, 1938, 1967 - early brochure for the German Amira (1950s)
German and French menstrual ads using nudity.
The tampon page
HOMEPAGE
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? |
Email the museum |
Privacy on this site |
Who runs this museum?? |
Amazing women! |
Art of menstruation |
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Douches, pain, sprays |
Essay directory |
Extraction |
Facts-of-life booklets for girls |
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Menarche booklets for girls and parents |
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Puberty booklets for girls and parents|
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Your remedies for menstrual discomfort |
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Science |
Shame |
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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 |
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.

The Original Museum of Menstruation in Harry Finley's House Basement, 1994-1998, page 2

On opening day, Sunday, 31 July 1994, Finley talked to visitors inside and outside the picture frame.
The table and wall display held current alternative menstrual products. The contemporary small bowl with brown pad
at the corner near the seated visitor contained water to soak used washable pads before washing and reuse,
continuing a practice centuries old. (The visitor's face is fuzzed out to preserve anonymity; she was a writer for Seventeen magazine.)
See a century-plus-old washable pad that belonged to an Italian countess.

Photo above courtesy of a friend of Finley's. Other photos by Harry Finley


Fishing line suspended mannequins wearing underpants from mid-to-late 20th century designed to hold pads without a belt.
The French edition of Elle magazine published a 2-page tampon ad hanging at right. Those are tampons tucked into the
tops of the stockings
. The ad continued to the next two pages shown on the reverse of the display. See another ad for
the same tampon. And I can't resist showing you this German plastic shopping bag for the same tampon.

In 2003 another fashion magazine, the Italian edition of Marie Claire, wrote about the culture of menstruation and this museum
and its menstrual art and products. A German magazine did a similar thing the following year.


Kotex created its first big campaign in 1921. This hanging display showed many of its ads and related printed matter (example).
Next photos. Click below on more views of the museum. See another tour of the museum.


Opening day, Sunday
31 July 1994. Harry
Finley talks to people
outside and inside the frame.


Mannequins hanging
from fishing line wear
underpants designed to
hold menstrual pads next
to a hanging 4-page ad for tampons
in the French Elle.


The first large Kotex ad
campaign, 1921, on
a hanging display.


At left, a table holds 2
mannequins, one wearing
a Kotex belt and pad, the
other a modern washable
belt and pad. At right,
miscellaneous ads
and the end of the
timeline of menstrual
products.



On the wall, a timeline
of menstrual products.

A mannequin suspended
from the ceiling wears
menstrual underpants.


A member of the lab at
Johns Hopkins that developed
the Instead menstrual cup
donated her Halloween
costume.


A re-creation of a 1914
Sears, Roebuck menstrual
apron.


Founder and designer of
the museum
Harry Finley
stands next to the menstrual
apron
and diaper cloth
pinned to a clothes line.



© 2015 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