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 Ortho-Novum 1/50 brand oral contraceptive around 1974. The monthly dose of 21 yellow hormonal pills and 7 inert pills are contained in Ortho’s trademarked DialPak dispenser. The DialPak, introduced in 1963, was the first oral contraceptive package to incorporate a “memory aid” and Ortho advertised it as “the package that remembers for her.” The center wheel of the DialPak reveals the day of the week, which 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 for that day. The pills are dispensed sideways to accommodate the 28 pills in the cycle.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Company, Inc
- ca 1974
- ID Number
- 2000.0090.08
- accession number
- 2000.0090
- catalog number
- 2000.0090.08
- Object Name
- contraceptive, oral
- Physical Description
- norethindrone, 1 mg (drug active ingredients)
- mestranol, 0.05 mg (drug active ingredients)
- plastic (packaging material)
- paper (label mateial)
- Measurements
- overall: 7.6 cm x 7.4 cm x 1.2 cm; 3 in x 2 15/16 in x 1/2 in
- overall: 1/2 in x 3 in x 3 in; 1.27 cm x 7.62 cm x 7.62 cm
- place made
- United States: New Jersey, Raritan
- 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_557423
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a3-c0d8-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
