Here are roughly contemporary Society pads.
See how women wore
a belt (and in a Swedish ad). See a modern belt for
a washable pad and a page from the 1946-47 Sears
catalog showing a great variety.
Booklets,
pads, tampons
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The Museum of Menstruation and
Women's Health
Ad for Venus
menstrual
pads
August, 1931, in
Independent Woman magazine,
U.S.A.
Doesn't it seem odd that the
Great Depression of the 1930s
produced ads showing wealthy
ladies? Even if the woman
below is at best turning something
over in her mind, at worst, well,
depressed
like the era. But then
poor women probably didn't buy
magazines.
Judith Thermon writes,
Upper-class life carried on
during the Depression with an
insouciant disregard for the
general misery. [Style maven
Diana] Vreeland and her husband,
a banker, who were living
abroad, kept a liveried
chauffeur for their Bugatti. By
the end of the decade,
[brilliant designer Charles]
James was juggling fully staffed
couture ateliers in London and
in Paris, where he stayed at the
venerable Hôtel Lancaster.
(from The New Yorker,
"Dressing Up," 5 May 2014)
So not everyone was hard up for
money as the ad below
demonstrates. It's possible that
women down on their luck went back
to using washable
pads just like the women who
couldn't fall any further.
NEWS FLASH!
Commercial washable pads are
available again today!
I just wanted to get your
attention since many of you know
this already. So of course are cups and sponges.
Or use nothing at all while
suppressing menstruation with
hormones.
See the Venus compressed
pad for travelers.
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Below:
The artist's signature in the upper
left corner of the painting - a
watercolor? - looks like "Phillips"
to me. It's possibly
Walter J. Phillips, a
Canadian watercolorist active at
this time. Sample his beautiful
watercolors of the Canadian
Rockies. Or
Samuel
George Phillips, an
American painter of portraits and
landscapes of the era, whose style
is more like our Venus portrait. Or
somebody else.
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Below:
The black-and-white ad measures
about 5 1/4 x 8 1/2" (13.3 x 21.6 cm)
and lies
in the lower left of an 8 1/2 x 11
3/4"
(21.6 x 29.8 cm) page.
The no-frills ad contrasts with the
fussier "Venus"
on the box. Art
Deco vs. early 20th
century.
The bottom line starts with
"patronize,"
which I chopped.
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Here are roughly contemporary Society pads.
Booklets,
pads, tampons
© 2014 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
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