Object Details
- Mead Johnson and Company
- Description (Brief)
- The popularity of “the Pill” created a new market for pharmaceutical companies. For the first time, healthy women would be taking medication for an extended period of time. Pill manufacturers developed unique packaging in order to distinguish their product from those of their competitors and build brand loyalty. Packaging design often incorporated a “memory aid” to assist women in tracking their daily pill regimen, as well as styled cases to allow pills to be discreetly carried in bags and purses. The National Museum of American History’s Division of Medicine and Science’s collection of oral contraceptives illustrates some of the changes that the packaging and marketing of the Pill underwent from its inception in 1960 to the present.
- Mead Johnson & Company of Evansville, Indiana, produced this Oracon-28 brand oral contraceptive in 1974. Oracon was a 28-pill sequential oral contraceptive. The blister pack contains 16 white estrogen pills, 6 pink combination estrogen and progesterone pills, and 6 green inert pills. The monthly dosage is organized into four weekly rows of pills that are numbered 1–28.
- In 1971 Mead Johnson introduced Oracon-28 as the "first 28-day sequential oral contraceptive." Advertising emphasized that the "uninterupted 28-day regimen simplifies dosage instruction, reduces risk of missed tablets."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- The Fournet Drugstore Collection
- 1974
- ID Number
- 1985.0475.143
- catalog number
- 1985.0475.143
- accession number
- 1985.0475
- Object Name
- pharmaceutical, dispenser of
- contraceptive, oral
- Other Terms
- pharmaceutical, dispenser of; Pharmaceutical; Contraceptive; Oral Contraceptive; Tablet
- Physical Description
- paper (leaflet material)
- ethinyl estradiol, 0.1 mg (drug (white and pink tablets) active ingredients)
- dimethisterone, 25 mg (drug (pink tablets) active ingredients)
- foil (blister pack material)
- paper (box material)
- paper (blister pack holder material)
- plastic (blister pack material)
- Measurements
- overall: 9.1 cm x 6.7 cm x 9.5 cm; 3 9/16 in x 2 5/8 in x 3 3/4 in
- overall: 3 7/8 in x 2 5/8 in x 1 1/4 in; 9.8425 cm x 6.6675 cm x 3.175 cm
- place made
- United States: Indiana, Evansville
- associated place
- United States: Louisiana, Saint Martinville
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Health & Medicine
- Birth Control
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Birth Control/Contraception
- Women's Health
- Record ID
- nmah_1068486
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a9-25df-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
