Box of 6 Wix tampons

Box of 6 Wix tampons (1 remaining), featuring endorsements on packaging: "Guaranteed by Good Housekeeping as Advertised Therein", "Approved by the Bureau of Feminine Hygiene" and "Accepted for Advertising by The Journal of The American Medical Association", The Wix Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1934-1938

Launched in the mid-1930s, Wix was one of the earliest American commercial tampons, and the first to be advertised in Sears catalogue in 1934. Described as “a revelation in sanitary protection”, the product – a cylinder of cotton surrounded by a perforated film – was marketed as an alternative to bulky pads to meet “the demand[s] of modern women”. Unlike rival brand Tampax, Wix tampons had no applicator. Sears readers were reassured that by placing a mail order, they would “save embarrassment”, reflecting the stigma surrounding menstruation.

The packaging prominently implies endorsement by trusted names Good Housekeeping and the American Medical Association, although the latter objected and the phrase was later removed. The ‘Bureau of Feminine Hygiene’ was not, in fact, an independent body but rather a subsidiary company.

By the end of the decade, the Wix Company had been bought out by Tampax.