Object Details
- Vogarell Products Company
- Description
- Blue and white and silver-colored cardboard box with divided interior for holding 12 vaginal cones (suppositories). Box is empty. Certane vaginal cones contained phenylmercuric acetate, 0.05% and oxyquinoline sulphate. Printed on box: "Must be kept cool to avoid melting." Information about the use of the cones is printed on the bottom of the box: "Convenient and quick to use. CERTANE Cones can be quickly inserted and pushed deeply into the vagina by the fingers. Their non-irritating base carrying the medical ingredients melts promptly in contact with body heat and moisture and after a little while spreads upon the vaginal membranes."
- In 1930, Rosemarie Lewis established the Certane Company to produce "feminine hygiene" products in Los Angeles, California. "Feminine hygiene" was a code term used by marketers for women's contraceptive products at a time when dealing in these products was illegal in most of the U.S. Lewis's first products were antiseptic vaginal jellies and douche powders, but she soon added cervical caps, diaphragms, and vaginal suppositories (cones) to the Certane line. Lewis sold her products through drugstores and other retail outlets and mail-order. She was investigated by the Federal Trade Ccommission (FTC) in 1938 and charged with false and misleading advertising. She was charged again in 1942 by the U.S. Postal Service for conducting unlawful business (selling contraceptives) through the mail. By 1948, Rosemarie Lewis began doing business as the Vogarell Products Company, the maker name on this product. In the 1950's Vogarell added Lanacane skin ointment for acne and Hemex rectal ointment to the product line. Certane douche powder, vaginal jelly, and vaginal suppositories appear to have remained on the market through the 1960s, and Lewis continued to do business as Vogarell into the early 1980s.
- Reference: Tone, Andrea. Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of George and Julius Garfield
- ID Number
- 1979.1144.283
- accession number
- 1979.1144
- catalog number
- 1979.1144.283
- Object Name
- vaginal suppositories
- Other Terms
- Pharmaceuticals; Drugs; Non-Liquid
- Measurements
- overall: 1 3/8 in x 3 1/4 in x 1 1/2 in; 3.4925 cm x 8.255 cm x 3.81 cm
- place made
- United States: California, Los Angeles
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Health & Medicine
- Beauty and Hygiene Products: Feminine Care
- Beauty and Health
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Women's Health
- Record ID
- nmah_720417
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-6313-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
