Ortho-Cyclen Oral Contraceptives
date: label: date made
content: 1992-1994
label: product expiration date
content: 1995-11
name: label: maker
content: Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
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: The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, New Jersey, produced this Ortho-Cyclen brand oral contraceptive around 1990. The 28-pill monthly regimen is in a purple foil wrapper that contains a DialPak dispenser and booklet titled “Questions and answers on Ortho-Cyclen tablets.” Ortho trademarked the term DialPak in 1965, and was the first company to release their medication in a memory-aid device, now ubiquitous among makers of oral contraceptives. This DialPak dispenser contains 21 blue hormonal tablets and 7 green inert tablets.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey, Raritan
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: Gift of Gladys Johnson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2004.0118.06
label: accession number
content: 2004.0118
label: catalog number
content: 2004.0118.06
objectType: label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: norgestimate, 0.250 mg (drug (blue tablet) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: ethinyl estradiol, 0.035 mg (drug (blue tablet) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: foil (package material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14.25 cm x 9.5 cm x 1.5 cm; 5 5/8 in x 3 3/4 in x 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3/4 in x 3 7/8 in x 5 3/4 in; 1.905 cm x 9.8425 cm x 14.605 cm