Percy Skuy Lecture 2025

‘We’ve been using your pessaries with great success’:
Consumers and the Material Culture of Contraceptives in Interwar Britain
Presented by Claire L. Jones, PhD
Thursday, April 3rd, 2025, 4:30-5:30 pm.

In Britain, the interwar period was a pivotal moment in the growth of markets for contraceptive goods, including caps, pessaries, douches, and condoms. By the outbreak of the Second World War, contraceptives became popular retail goods, and were available from pharmacies and other retail outlets. The commercial success of contraceptives was due in part to their attractive, colorful packaging and targeted marketing. This lecture will highlight how such material aspects of interwar contraceptive goods were integral to their commercial success and argue that while these aspects increased sales, they were not embraced by everyone. More broadly, this lecture will suggest how considering the materiality of contraception not only provides important insights into the history of birth control, but also allows us to rethink how we teach and display this topic.

Dr. Claire L. Jones is a historian and curator. She is currently Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Kent, UK. Her research centers on the history of medicine and health in Britain post 1750, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between medicine, commerce, consumption and material culture. Her latest book, The Business of Birth Control: Contraception and Commerce in Britain before the Sexual Revolution (2020), Manchester University Press, focuses on the commercialisation of contraceptives in Britain from the late nineteenth century.

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Event location:

Allen Memorial Medical Library
Zverina Room, 3rd Floor
11000 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44120