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1928, English, Object edition: Box of contraceptive aids, including vaginal tablets, salicylic acid and rubber douche, paper / rubb...

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Box of contraceptive aids, including vaginal tablets, salicylic acid and rubber douche, paper / rubb..
 
Bookmark: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/172467159
Physical Description
  • Contraceptives
  • Health and Medical Equipment
Published
  • 1928-1950
Language
  • English

Edition details

Title
  • Box of contraceptive aids, including vaginal tablets, salicylic acid and rubber douche, paper /​ rubb...
Published
  • 1928-1950
Physical Description
  • Contraceptives
  • Health and Medical Equipment
Subjects
Summary
  • Box of contraceptive aids, including vaginal tablets, salicylic acid and rubber douche, paper /​ rubber /​ Bakelite, various makers, Australia /​ USA, [1928-1950] The lidded, black cardboard box may be the packaging in which the douche was originally purchased. The various other pharmaceutical products have been stored by their owner in this box, presumably for safekeeping and privacy. In addition to the rubber douche there is a 'Proveen Antiseptic Vaginal Tablets' box containing an empty glass phial for 'Dr Leroux's German Vaginal Tablets'; a box of Parke Davis &​ Co. Empty Gelatine Capsules' - most of which are indeed empty, but two of which are filled with white powder; a brown paper bag containing a white crystalline substance, with a 'Grace Bros. Ltd. Broadway' label on which has been handwritten 'Salicylic Acid 1 oz.'; and a piece of string (perhaps originally tied around the paper bag).
Notes
  • The Powerhouse Museum holds a remarkable array of birth control material mainly as a result of active collecting for the 1995 exhibition, 'Taking precautions: the story of contraception'. One of the most interesting items is this battered cardboard box. Hidden away on the top shelf of a wardrobe out of reach of the children, the box was only discovered by those 'children' after their elderly mother died in the 1990s. It contains her personal collection of birth control devices, including a rubber douche, packets of proprietary 'antiseptic vaginal tablets', and a box of empty gelatine capsules for home-made suppositories. The woman was married in the late 1920s when advice about contraception was not easy to obtain. For the whole of her married life she lived in Hurstville, a suburb of Sydney. Her first child was born 14 months after the marriage and she went on to have another three children over period of fourteen years. Early in the marriage, because of the Depression, her husband became unemployed. Her elder daughter relates that when her mother learnt that she was pregnant with a second child, she jumped off the kitchen table in an attempt to cause a miscarriage, "but Kelvin hung on". The Powerhouse is grateful to the family who, while wishing to preserve their mother's privacy, recognised that her "box of things" was an important piece of history that should be preserved, exemplifying as it does an important facet of so many women's lives.
Language
  • English
Image Number
  • 140741
  • 425
  • 94/​226/​1

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Powerhouse Museum. Exhibitions and Programs. Open to the public Object English
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