Harmon Double; "Stop VD Use Latex"
Object Details
- Description
- This double two-column vending machine was manufactured by the Harmon Machine Company of Wichita, Kansas. The machine sold condoms during the 1940s and 1950s. A label on the right-hand side reads “STOP V.D.”
- In 1872, the Comstock Act had prohibited interstate commerce in obscene literature and immoral material. Condoms and other forms of birth control fell under the category of “immoral material.” As forbidden material, condoms were rarely advertised openly. However, during the early twentieth century, rising concerns about gonorrhea and syphilis led a growing number of public health advocates to call for condoms to be sold to prevent disease. In 1918, a court case in New York, (The People of the State of New York v Margaret H. Sanger) clarified that existing penal codes allowed physicians to prescribe condoms to prevent disease. Named after Judge Frederick Crane who wrote the opinion in the case, the Crane decision opened the door for condom manufacturers to openly advertise and sell condoms, provided they were sold as a disease preventative.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- and "This machine is placed here by the Public Health Service."
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- date made
- ca 1940
- ID Number
- 1989.0416.003
- accession number
- 1989.0416
- catalog number
- 1989.0416.003
- Object Name
- Vending Machine, Condom
- Other Terms
- Vending Machine, Condom; Manufacturing And Dispensing Equipment
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- place made
- United States: Illinois, Chicago
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Subject
- Birth Control/Contraception
- Sexually Transmitted Diseases
- Sex
- Record ID
- nmah_688107
