Claire Jones, University of Kent
By the interwar period, W. J. Rendell’s The Wife Friend Soluble Pessaries were among the most popular contraceptive products on the market in Britain and across the British empire. Well marketed in women’s magazines, these quinine pessaries with a cocoa-butter base were available via mail order and from every chemists’ shop and easily recognisable by their distinctive red box and branding. Yet, while we know something about the home production and distribution of this form of contraceptive, responses of consumers, particularly those outside Britain, have so far been hidden. Through its focus on a series of customer letters, this paper will uncover some consumer responses to this well known contraceptive brand. Its particular focus on consumers located across the British Empire provide some key historical insights into the wide geographical spread of the markets for such products and their demographics.
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Dr Claire L. Jones is Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Kent. Her research centres on the cultural, economic and social history of medicine and health in Britain post 1750, with particular emphases on the relationship between medicine and commerce, and the ways in which this relationship affects professional social structures, consumption and material culture. She has published widely in these areas.