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 Original Museum
of Menstruation (MUM) in Harry Finley's
House Basement, 1994-1998 (& reaction to it),
P. 1
The physical museum doesn't
exist anymore. MUM lives only on
this Web site. Cartoon strip
about a visit to this museum.
The future of this museum.
All photos except opening day
by Harry Finley
|
In the mid-1990s
founder Harry Finley stood (above)
next to a sanitary apron he
commissioned Dr. Ann Wass to
create based on a Sears,
Roebuck 1914 catalog illustration.
The long rubber
apron in back (scroll down)
protected the woman's clothing from
stains. On the clothes line hung a
piece of diaper
cloth, showing
what many women wore to absorb
menstrual flow and then washed, mainly
in earlier America. Some
might have pinned it inside the holder
of a sanitary apron. More photos of
the museum at the bottom of this
page.
See a more recent picture
of Finley (bottom of page).
Using
his own funds and spare time,
Harry Finley researched, designed, built,
wrote and mounted text, and
ran the museum
while working full time as a
graphic designer for the
federal government in
Washington, D.C. He
bought the mannequins.
Many companies (like Tambrands
and Procter
& Gamble) and
individuals donated items to
the archives that Finley
bought.
The museum - MUM, MUseum
of Menstruation -
replaced a newsletter, Catamenia,
that he had published for a couple of years. He designed
and started this Web site in
1996, which he has researched, written,
created the graphics for, and
run ever since. Bio.
|
Among the about 1500
visitors over the four years were
- Kara Swisher "Silicon
Valley’s Most Feared and
Well-Liked Journalist" (she
called herself Sherlock Homo
in New York magazine). She
popped in (scroll
down to "Washington
Post Investigated ...")
on the museum's opening day (31
July 1994) when she worked for The
Washington Post. The
Post ran a long story
about MUM by Megan Rosenfeld the
following spring (15 April 1995).
- Dr. Katherine Ott, the former curator of the medical
division at the Smithsonian's
National Museum of American
History, which houses the
Smithsonian's menstruation items. A Smithsonian Fellow when she visited, she
brought six
of her fellow Fellows with her
and donated unusual patents as
museum-warming gifts.
- Dr. Alice Dan, a
founder and the-then president of
The Society for Menstrual Cycle
Research.
-
Dr. Philip Thomson,
Honorary Curator in Medical
History at the Tasmanian Museum
(Australia) and Winston Churchill
Fellow, told
me when he visited MUM (in
1995) that he "almost drove
off the road in shock" on
the way to work one morning
listening to the
16-minute radio
tour of this museum by
the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.
- Megan Hicks, Curator of
Medicine at Australia's largest
museum, The Powerhouse, in Sydney.
Her
museum will get the MUM
archives unless a suitable
replacement for MUM is found
before I die. Our two museums have
exchanged menstrual artifacts and
information (Powerhouse
to MUM, and here;
MUM
to Powerhouse, and here).
- Writers of later books about
menstruation, including Karen
Houppert (The Curse,
also the title of an earlier book
by
Janice Delaney,
Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth),
Dr. Lara Freidenfels
(The Modern Period), Dr.
Sharra Vostral (Under
Wraps, also the name of an
earlier Canadian TV production by
Starry Night Productions that
included this museum), Dr.
Elizabeth Kissling (Capitalizing
on the Curse), and Elissa
Stein (Flow: The
Cultural Story of Menstruation).
Some used material from MUM's
archives for ideas and research.
- The lab (minus the director) at
the Johns Hopkins Department of
Biophysics that developed the
Instead menstrual cup.
- The head of American education
at Tambrands, Dr. Iris
Prager, with her son (who
appeared in a Tampax educational
video) and some advertising staff.
- TV and audio crews from the U.S.,
Canada, Australia, Germany, and
Switzerland. (More media
information.)
- TV folks from Comedy
Central's Daily Show,
and crews from Howard
Stern's radio and TV
programs.
- Many print journalists.
- A class with its teacher from
the University of Maryland.
- And . . . you,
maybe, among the many often
anonymous visitors I was happy to
see and talk with.
Part of the museum is in boxes. The 4000-5000 items in the archives are back from storage and in my basement.
But zip to the FUTURE!
I want you
to create a new, larger and
permanent museum to teach and
entertain the public. I know
that many women object to my having
created the museum because I'm a male.
For that reason I will relinquish any
role in developing and running a new
one if necessary and will donate the MUM archives
to a suitable replacement, including
to an existing museum under certain
conditions. I'll help if you want,
including with money if I'm ever able
to. More
about the future of this museum here.
|
NEXT large
pictures. Or
click on these 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
picture frame.
|
Mannequins hanging
from fishing line wear
underpants designed to
hold menstrual pads next
to a suspended 2-page ad
in the French Elle
for
tampons that continued
on the reverse for another
2 pages.
|
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 beginning of a
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
|
|