Advance Machine Company Vending Machine
date: label: date made
content: 1942-1955
notes: label: Description
content: This orange metal vending machine has a metal plate with handle-coin insert and key. The patent for this vending machine was approved in 1942. The National Prophylactic Rubber Vending Service in Chicago distributed this machine; overall, the company supplied 500 condom machines across an 8-state area during the mid-twentieth century.
label: Description
content: This specific vending machine sold condoms during the 1940s and 1950s. The label on the machine states “"Sold for the Prevention of Disease Only / LATEX / Package 5 cents / NOTICE / Should the presence of this machine be offensive to you / Visit our hospitals, health institutes, and asylums. You will be astounded. / You may well place the blame upon yourself and others who think as you do."
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0416.001
label: accession number
content: 1989.0416
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0416.001
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)
label: Physical Description
content: steel; paint (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 5/8 in x 4 1/8 in x 6 1/2 in; 77.7875 cm x 10.4775 cm x 16.51 cm