See a roughly contemporary pad, Society, and a "silent purchase" ad for Modess, 1928.
Other Modess ads: 1931,"Modess . . . . because" ads, the French Modess, and the German "Freedom" (Kimberly-Clark) for teens.
See a prototype of the first Kotex ad.
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CONTRIBUTE to Humor, Words and expressions about menstruation and Would you stop menstruating if you could?
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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 perfect menstrual pad 2a (1 2 2a 3 4 4a 5):
Box for 1930s Modess pad

"Report of Gilbreth, Inc.," to Johnson & Johnson Company, 1 January 1927, about how to
improve the company's menstrual products, especially with regard to competition with Kotex pads

The box is as blue as you can get, in spite of Dr. Gilbreth's exasperation with the color; and Kotex was famously blue. Maybe the "blue fluid" so laughed at today in menstrual products advertising is simply a carryover of an advertising gimmick, that of putting the company color everywhere.

As I mentioned earlier, the company calls it a "boudoir box," and intended it to be unidentifiable. But it has writing on all six sides (you see only three, below) and the word "Modess" is 5.25" (13.4 cm) long and 1.125" (2.9 cm) high on each of the four long sides. Go figure.

The box measures 7.75" (20.5 cm) wide, 3" (7.6 cm) high and 3.25" (8.2 cm) deep.

 

NEXT: a post-Gilbreth Modess ad - The pad - Instructions and advertising material inside box - Gilbreth Report: 1 (introduction)

2 (college student's design & Smith College) 2a (names and colors) 3 (belts & accessories) 4 (conclusions & recommendations) 4a (a perfect pad?) 5 (last recommendation)
The copy of the report that I read, which might be unique, rests in the special collections of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S.A. Dr. Gilbreth was the first woman engineering professor at Purdue.
© 1999 Harry Finley. It is illegal to reproduce or distribute work on this Web site in any manner or medium without written permission of the author. Please report suspected violations to hfinley@mum.org