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.
- Organon International of Oss, Holland, produced this Cyclessa oral contraceptive at their American subsidiary in West Orange, New Jersey, around 2003. The blue foil wrapper contains a professional sample consisting of a 28-day monthly regimen of pills, including 7 inert pills.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Organon Inc.
- date made
- ca 2003
- Physical Description
- desogestrol, 0.100 mg; ethinyl estradiol, 0.025 mg (drug active ingredients)
- desogestrol, 0.125 mg; ethinyl estradiol, 0.025 mg (drug active ingredients)
- desogestrol, 0.150 mg; ethinyl estradiol, 0.025 mg (drug active ingredients)
- Measurements
- overall: 12.6 cm x 6.4 cm x .9 cm; 4 15/16 in x 2 1/2 in x 3/8 in
- overall: 3/8 in x 2 1/4 in x 5 1/8 in; .9525 cm x 5.715 cm x 13.0175 cm
- Object Name
- oral contraceptive
- contraceptive, oral
