Ovulen Oral Contraceptive
date: label: date made
content: 1960s
name: label: maker
content: G. D. Searle and Company
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: G. D. Searle and Company of Chicago, Illinois, produced this Ovulen brand oral contraceptive for sale in Argentina during the 1960s. The regimen is in two silver blister packs of 10 pills, each inserted into a cardboard holder. The interior of the holder is divided into a five by five grid with a space for the day and date to be written by the user in each square. These oral contraceptives were distributed as a physician’s sample in Argentina.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Argentina: Buenos Aires
label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Chicago
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 Margaret Sanger Center
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1982.0531.015
label: accession number
content: 1982.0531
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0531.015
objectType: label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral
label: Other Terms
content: Contraceptives; Patent Medicines; Drugs; Non-Liquid
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: diacetato de etinodiol, 1.0 mg (drug active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: mestranol, 0.1 mg (drug active ingredients)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6.5 cm x 13.5 cm x .9 cm; 2 9/16 in x 5 5/16 in x 3/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall. as stored: 3/8 in x 5 1/2 in x 2 1/2 in; .9525 cm x 13.97 cm x 6.35 cm