Museum of Menstruation

“What a Young Woman Ought to Know,” Dr. Mary Wood-Allen, Vir Publishing Company, 1913.

Doctor and health reformer Mary Wood-Allen’s 1913 pamphlet “What a Young Woman Ought to Know” addressed concerns about menstrual hygiene before women adopted disposable feminine products. She challenged practices women had used to manage menstruation, such as prolonged wear of menstrual rags or forgoing them entirely, as unsanitary and unhealthy.