Browse Items (13 total)

Illustration shows Anthony Comstock as a monk thwarting shameless displays of excessive flesh, whether that of women, horses, or dogs, with a "Jane Doe Warrant".

The indications or uses for this product as provided by the manufacturer, or as found in contemporary medical literature, are:
For use as a laxative but is rarely employed today. It has gained some reputation as an abortifacient and therefore must…

A handy little booklet for users inside of Chichester's English Pennyroyal Pills, Philadelphia, PA. Contains etiquette for the young lady, and calendar for the years 1902 to 1905. Practically have been pinned pages of wax paper on which to keep his…

This blown and molded glass bottle with stopper has a baked enamel label marked, OL RUTAE. Oil of Rutae is made from the herb Ruta graveolens more commonly known as Rue. The leaves of the herb are distilled in alcohol and used as a stimulant, an…

Two advertisments from the New York sun newspaper. Mrs. Bird offers pills for treatment of menstrual irregularity and Madame Costello offers help to women who want to be treated for "obstruction of their monthly periods."

Photograph shows Margaret Higgins Sanger (1879-1966), an American birth control activist, sex educator, and nurse. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2013)

Magazine illustration depicting Ann Lohman guilty of breaking the Comstock Law.

Anna Lohman (1812-1877) and her husband, Charles, ran a flourishing mail-order business from the 1840s to the 1870s. Under the names Madame Restell and Dr. Mauriceau, they sold contraceptives and operated an abortion clinic in New York City.


Her…

With soap an illegal abortion was triggered earlier frequently. For this, a bar of soap was either introduced via a metal catheter directly into the uterus, or first dissolved in water and introduced via a balloon catheter or an enema container. This…

Advertisment by Dr. L. Monroe in the Boston daily times newspaper for "French periodical pills" for regulation of "the monthly turns of females." Advertisement advises that "ladies married should not take them if they have reason to believe they are…