Object Details
- Description (Brief)
- 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.
- The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation of Raritan, New Jersey, produced this Ortho-Novum 7/7/7 brand oral contraceptive around 1984. The monthly dosage is in a 28-pill DialPak dispenser. The 7/7/7 referred to the three weeks of 7 active pills. Each week consists of varying ratios of norethindrone and ethinyl estradiol, followed by 7 inert pills to finish the 28-day cycle. This contraceptive pack was distributed as a physician’s sample, not for sale.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation
- date made
- 1985-1988
- product expiration date
- 1988-07
- Credit Line
- Gift of Gladys Abell Johnson
- Physical Description
- foil, aluminum (package material)
- plastic (dispenser material)
- norethindrone, 0.5 mg (drug (white tablet) active ingredients)
- norethindrone, 0.75 mg (drug (light peach tablet) active ingredients)
- norethindrone, 1 mg (drug (peach tablet) active ingredients)
- ethinyl estradiol, 0.035 mg (drug (all active tablets) active ingredients)
- paper (insert material)
- Measurements
- overall: 1.3 cm x 8.5 cm x 14 cm; 1/2 in x 3 3/8 in x 5 1/2 in
- overall: 5/8 in x 3 3/4 in x 5 5/8 in; 1.5875 cm x 9.525 cm x 14.2875 cm
- Object Name
- contraceptive, oral
- Other Terms
- Pharmaceutical; Contraceptive; Oral Contraceptive
