See more Tampax items: British ad promoting use with thongs, 1994 - another British Tampax ad, with nudity, 1992 - "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" ad (Feb. 1990) - August 1965 ad (U.S.A.) - a sign advertising Tampax during World War II - the original patent - an instruction sheet from the 1930s - and some other early commercial tampons
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.

Three very early Dutch Tampax menstrual tampon ads, 1938

Tampax started in the U.S.A. in the early 1930s with the invention of Dr. Earle Haas (read "Small Wonder," the company's history of itself from 1936-86), a two-tube applicator, which contrasted with the non-applicator tampons of the 1930s in America (for example, Wix). (See a box of Tampax from the early 1930s.)

Apparently, in the late 1930s Tampax reached Europe, as seen the ads below in Dutch publications. Tambrands, the company that made Tampax until the late 1990s, presented this museum a box of its tampons with French text that it marked with "1938" - maybe for France, maybe for French-speaking Canada, maybe for both or maybe for somewhere else.

The advertising emphasizes freedom for sports, etc., and freedom from menstrual pads and napkin belts (see some American belts) and pins, which had nagged women for ever.

"Geen gordel, geen spelden, geen verband" means what it meant on American Tampax boxes for decades: "No belt, no pins, no pad," the rallying cry of Tampax.

See another Dutch ad from 1938, virtually identical to a contemporary American ad.

And look at three French Tampax magazine ads and a countertop display from 1938.

A Dutchman generously contributed the scans of the ads and the translation of the first one.
 
 Above: 15 September 1938 in Panorama magazine
Translation by the Dutch contributor:
[Title]
TAMPAX
The new method of hygienic protection was advertised the first time a month ago.
[Balloon]
Now already enthusiastic letters
[Box with letter]
August 1, 1938
I hope that all women realize how thankful they must be to the inventor of Tampax. It is a real rescue! I recommend as much as possible Tampax to every girlfriend and they are all just as enthusiastic as me. [P.S. Velp is a little affluent town nearby Arnhem in the eastern part of the Netherlands]
[Photo of Tampax box]
Hygienic protection [cross] Internally worn
[right center]: TAMPAX
Recommended by gynecologists
[center] TAMPAX
Patent
10 TAMPAX ­ sufficient for one month
[in black] The solution to a century-old problem
[in black underside] Safe Sure
Pleasant Easy
[Left under]
Tampax is ideal for the civilized woman. Perfect hygienic protection, absolute certainty, complete invisibility. It gives unhampered freedom of movement.
[Black box]
No belt
No pins
No napkin
[Body]
Everywhere in the Netherlands, in every town, the ladies [vrouwen = women; dames = ladies, very distinct] told each other about Tampax, the new method of hygienic protection.
Tampax has to be worn internally. You can do your daily chores or do sport as on other days. You can wear the thinnest dress or a modern sport or bathing suit without people noticing anything. Tampax is perfectly invisible and you don't notice it yourself .
Tampax was invented by a doctor, for every normal woman and is after its triumphal march through America and England now also available in the Netherlands. It is a complete revolution in the field of monthly hygiene.
No napkin, no belt, no pins anymore. Tampax gives perfect protection and can be changed in a moment. It is manufactured from extraordinary strong absorbing, medical cotton-wool, strongly compressed, packed in sealed, patented applicator.
Recommended by gynecologists and Dutch doctors.
A box for a whole month supply can be stored easily in your handbag and cost only 65 cents [nominally about 24 dollar cents*)], a trail box 35 cents.
[Coupon]
N.V. [=limited liability company] Drogerijen Maatschappij
Verlaatstraat 52-56, Rotterdam
Send me a trial box of Tampax. Enclosed are stamps worth 35 cents.
Name/Street/Town
Send it in closed envelop as a letter.
[*)nominal one Dutch guilder = 100 cents = about 0,45 Euro = about 40 dollar cents nowadays]

 
Above: from Panorama, 29 September 1938. The large words at top say, "Freedom from the pad." Note the nurse, once common on menstrual product packaging. See a frightening but pretty German nurse wagging her finger.
 
From Panorama, 1 September 1938. The headline reads, "Life for women is more confortable - each month."

British ad promoting use with thongs, 1994 - another British Tampax ad, with nudity, 1992 - "Are you sure I'll still be a virgin?" ad
(Feb. 1990) - August 1965 ad (U.S.A.)

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