Harmon Double; "Stop VD Use Latex"
date: label: date made
content: ca 1940
notes: label: Description
content: This double two-column vending machine was manufactured by the Harmon Machine Company of Wichita, Kansas. The machine sold condoms during the 1940s and 1950s. A label on the right-hand side reads “STOP V.D.”
label: Description
content: In 1872, the Comstock Act had prohibited interstate commerce in obscene literature and immoral material. Condoms and other forms of birth control fell under the category of “immoral material.” As forbidden material, condoms were rarely advertised openly. However, during the early twentieth century, rising concerns about gonorrhea and syphilis led a growing number of public health advocates to call for condoms to be sold to prevent disease. In 1918, a court case in New York, (The People of the State of New York v Margaret H. Sanger) clarified that existing penal codes allowed physicians to prescribe condoms to prevent disease. Named after Judge Frederick Crane who wrote the opinion in the case, the Crane decision opened the door for condom manufacturers to openly advertise and sell condoms, provided they were sold as a disease preventative.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
topic: label: Subject
content: Birth Control/Contraception
label: Subject
content: Sexually Transmitted Diseases
label: Subject
content: Sex
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: and "This machine is placed here by the Public Health Service."
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0416.003
label: accession number
content: 1989.0416
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0416.003
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Vending Machine, Condom
label: Other Terms
content: Vending Machine, Condom; Manufacturing And Dispensing Equipment
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)