Innovations in menstrual technology that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century allow us to infer what techniques women used to manage their periods in earlier decades by analyzing what issues new products aimed to ‘solve.’ Instead of taking for granted that the products were almost the same, I seek to trace earlier methods of menstrual technology by pinpointing the issues of handmade methods. For example, a number of the new products sought to alleviate issues of chafing. Therefore, it can be gleaned that women in the nineteenth century and earlier often dealt with issues of chafing from their homemade menstrual rags, an issue exacerbated when away from home. Likely bulky, with pins in the undergarments that may not have stayed in place, mobile women would have dealt with the discomfort of rags and clothes in their clothes while traveling. Chafing would have been another burden to the body as she traveled, causing discomfort, or even infections and other issues from the raw skin.
How did women, especially those away from home, collect the menstrual blood expelled during her cycle in the nineteenth century? We begin by exploring the undergarments of women in the early American republic. Many women wore crotchless underwear in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. Crotchless underwear created two problems for menstruating women: napkins and cloths could not be pinned directly to the crotch of undergarments, and there was also no fabric in the crotch to catch any blood if the menstruater started early or got caught unprepared. Though some scholars have suggested that women freely bled throughout much of history, others find this unconvincing. First, bleeding onto oneself would cause discomfort. Second, free bleeding would increase the labor of laundering one’s clothing, which would already be an arduous task for women traveling and staying in the homes of others. The use of crotchless underwear further complicates an argument for free bleeding, as women would have bled down their legs, not into the gusset of the underwear. Instead, crotchless underwear underscores the need for belts to secure cloths to the body
Extant handmade menstrual technology can elucidate how at least some women in the nineteenth century handled their periods. We return to the Massie set of pads and belts held at the Valentine Museum. This particular set, with two napkins knitted out of cotton yarn and the belts sewn from cotton fabric, shows consistent signs of use and stains. The knitted sanitary napkins, which are around twenty-five inches long and three inches wide, both have a hole at the wider, tapered end. This hole could have been used with a button or other fastener, or the belts included in the set may have been fed through the hole to hold the napkin up as the belt fit around the waist. The other end may have been pinned into the wearer’s undergarments.