C-Quens Oral Contraceptive
date: label: date made
content: ca 1965
name: label: maker
content: Eli Lilly 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: Eli Lilly and Company of Indianapolis, Indiana produced this C-Quens brand oral contraceptive around 1965. The paper package is folded matchbook-style with directions and blister pack inside. The pills are laid out to represent a calendar, with 15 white 80 mcg Mestranol tablets, and 5 peach colored tablets that are 80 mcg Mestranol with 2 mg of chlormadinone acetate.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The FDA approved C-Quens for marketing in May,1965. The pills were withdrawn from the market in October, 1970 after tests on dogs suggested that the synthetic progesterone used in the pills, chlormadinone acetate, may increase the risk of breast cancer.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Indiana, Indianapolis
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: 1982.0531.011
label: catalog number
content: 1982.0531.011
label: accession number
content: 1982.0531
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pharmaceutical, dispenser of
label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral
label: Object Name
content: contraceptive, oral, professional sample
label: Other Terms
content: pharmaceutical, dispenser of; Pharmaceutical; Contraceptive; Oral Contraceptive; Tablet
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: mestranol, 80 mcg (drug (white and peach tablets) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: chlormadinone acetate, 2 mg (drug (peach tablets only) active ingredients)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (folder material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (blister pack material)
label: Physical Description
content: aluminum foil (blister pack material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: .4 cm x 7.7 cm x 9.9 cm; 3/16 in x 3 1/16 in x 3 7/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/4 in x 3 in x 3 7/8 in; .635 cm x 7.62 cm x 9.8425 cm