Ortho DialPak Oral Contraceptive

Object Details

Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation

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.

The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, New Jersey, produced this oral contraceptive around 1965. Three monthly cycles of 20 pills (60 pills total) are contained in Ortho’s trademarked DialPak dispenser. The DialPak, introduced in 1963, was the first oral contraceptive package to incorporate a “memory aid” which Ortho advertised as “the package that remembers for her.” The center wheel of the DialPak reveals the day of the week and aligns with a pill on the outer ring. When the user turned the dial to dispense the next pill, the wheel in the center advanced a day, allowing the user to see if she had taken her pill.

Credit Line

Gift of Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Company, Inc.

ca 1965

ID Number

2000.0090.05

accession number

2000.0090

catalog number

2000.0090.05

Object Name

contraceptive, oral

Physical Description

plastic (packaging material)

Measurements

overall: 7.4 cm x 6.4 cm x 1.1 cm; 2 15/16 in x 2 1/2 in x 7/16 in

overall: 1/2 in x 3 in x 2 5/8 in; 1.27 cm x 7.62 cm x 6.6675 cm

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_557420

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a3-bd62-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa