Koromex Diaphragm with Sanitary Plastic Case, Diaphragm Size 95

Description:

Light orange-colored cardboard box containing a round white plastic case which contains one Koromex Size 95 diaphragm. "KOROMEX / 95" is printed on diaphragm. "Lanteen" is embossed on the plastic case and "95" is written in red grease pencil on the case. The case and diaphagm became mismatched prior to being acquired by the museum. Printed on the box: "Caution: Federal law restricts this device to sale by or on the order of a physician" and "Manufactured by Holland-Rantos Company, Inc., New York, New York."

James Noah Henry Slee, second husband of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, established the Holland-Rantos Company in 1925. The company was the first in the United States to produce diaphragms and associated women's contraceptive products exclusively for the medical profession. The Koromex brand of diaphragm, introduced in 1925, was similar to the Mensinga diaphragms manufactured in Holland, which Slee had been smuggling into the country for Sanger's birth control clinics. Holland-Rantos became a leading supplier in the United States especially after a 1936 court case allowed medical doctors to prescribe contraceptive devices for their patients and exempted them prosecution under the Comstock Act.

Reference: Tone, Andrea. Devices and Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001.