Norquest-Fe Oral Contraceptive
date: label: date made
content: before 1989-05
name: label: maker
content: Syntex Laboratories
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: 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.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Syntex Laboratories of Palo Alto, California, produced this Norquest-Fe brand oral contraceptive between 1989 and 2005. The cardboard box packaging has a photo-silhouette of a man and woman. The box contains one 28-pill blister pack with 21 white hormonal pills and 7 brown iron supplement pills. The package also contains a white insert with patient directions stating that Norquest was “ . . . specially imported in Bangladesh for distribution at a subsidized rate by Social Marketing Company (SMC).”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Palo Alto
topic: label: Subject
content: Birth Control/Contraception
label: Subject
content: Women's Health
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Birth Control
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dr. Linda S. Potter
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1997.0360.03
label: catalog number
content: 1997.0360.03
label: accession number
content: 1997.0360
objectType: label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: norethindrone, 1.0 mg (drug active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: ferrous fumarate (iron), 75 mg (drug (brown tablet) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: ethinyl estradiol, 0.035 mg (drug active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: foil (blister pack material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (box material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (blister pack material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (insert material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 cm x 6.4 cm x .8 cm; 3 15/16 in x 2 17/32 in x 5/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall, box: 2 1/2 in x 3 3/4 in x 3/8 in; 6.35 cm x 9.525 cm x .9525 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, pill pack: 2 1/4 in x 3 1/2 in x 1/8 in; 5.715 cm x 8.89 cm x .3175 cm