Friday night, my husband and I came within $100 of buying a 62-year-old Ramses condom tin. Although we really wanted it—really wanted it--we just couldn’t justify $115 for something smaller than an iPod Shuffle, even in mint condition. At first I was bummed, and then I thought, happily, This collection is getting a little crazy.
Because there is a collection, and it makes both of us happy, so I should talk about it.
It’s this… thing we’ve been doing for several years now. We call it “the collection,” “the sex ed. books,” and lately, “the hygiene library.” It started with one book bought at the Printer’s Row Book Fair (I don’t even remember which one), then another and another. Now we have close to a dozen books covering sex, eugenics, love, hygiene and the rhythm method, all but two written before 1950. We also have a collection of informational pamphlets on VD and hygiene, from the state of Illinois, and a 1940s brochure from a diaphragm-maker. Vintage condom tins are probably the next step.
I like these books because they’re fascinating, and because they put the lie to the idea that “No one ever talked about sex…” It’s true that people didn’t talk about sex with anything like the openness and frequency they do now, but they did talk. Or at least read. The books are often wrong (Fashionable amusements and dancing can cause miscarriages—The Perfect Woman, 1901), and sometimes histrionic, but occasionally they are surprisingly modern (Children should be educated about sex—Eugenics and Sex Harmony, 1933).
At right: Diagram detailing the dangers of self-abuse (and cigarettes), also from Eugenics and Sex Harmony.
The next book fair is in two weeks, and our hopes are high. I expect we'll be doing this for a long, long time. Like my husband said on the way home Friday night, "When we die, there's going to be one hell of an estate sale."
