Belts to hold menstrual pads, part 1 (part 2)

Women wore commercial belts at least from the latter part of the nineteenth century (the earliest ad the museum has is an American one dated 1891). Because self-adhesive pads became available only in the early 1970s, if women used pads, they had to wear belts, suspenders, "sanitary panties," (underpants with hooks or tabs or something else to hold the pad in place) - or invent some way of getting the pad to stay in place.

Companies sold probably hundreds of varieties of belts in the past hundred years, but the industry almost disappeared in the early 1970s with the advent of pads with adhesive (Stayfree and New Freedom).

See my drawing of a mid-19th century belt and pad in the collection of the Valentine Richmond History Center in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.



See also the Kotex "featherweight" menstrual pad belt in a tube.

Ad for New Victoria Protector, late 19th, early 20th centuries?, Chicago Specialty Co., U.S.A.

Ad for an Australian Kotex belt, 1956.



Many belts, sanitary aprons & underpants from the Butler, Smyth and Savage catalogs, early 20th century.

See 3 ads for American belts, 1949 and 1955, and a booklet for girls by Beltx.