The Birth Control Review, 1928-1929

Cover of January 1928 issue of Birth Control Review which is dedicated to the cause of voluntary motherhood. Issue cost twenty cents, and above the price is listed womans right. Articles listed on the cover include The Mothers by Mary Austin, Shall Women Be Free?, and Hindu Motherhood by NS Phadke. To the right is a picture of a mother and son reproduced from the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

The Birth Control Review magazine was published in the United States from 1917-1940 as a way to spread awareness on female birth control access in America. This magazine contains twenty-four issues of The Birth Control Review from January 1928 to December 1929. Each issue consists of an editorial, five to ten articles written by those with have experience with birth control (either in a medical sense or those who have need for birth control), book reviews, news notes, and advertisements in the last few pages. Before April 1929, each issue began with a page titled "Ten Good Reasons for Birth Control" which stated several reasons for birth control (Ex: The 1928 October edition began with Reason VIL. – Migration and War).

Margaret Sanger was no stranger to the birth control taboo; in fact, she was one of the leading pioneers in the fight for access to birth control during the early 20th century. In 1911, Sanger moved to New York City, writing and demonstrating with different worker rights groups and began writing about feminine hygiene in 1913. Though she was lightly covering the idea of birth control in the beginning, she switched to a much more intense research of birth control after a trip to Paris gave her insight into the death of a young mother who died of one too many pregnancies. In 1914, she published her first issue of The Woman Rebel, which was a direct commentary on feminism and radical birth control ideas. In 1916, she opened a birth control clinic in New York City and was sentenced to a month in prison for doing so. In 1917, Sanger published her first issue of The Birth Control Review. Sanger published the magazine herself initially, but after she began the American Birth Control League in 1921, the organization took over publishing the journal. The Birth Control Review became the power symbol of the American Birth Control League, and the prominent way Sanger spread her message during her time with the magazine. Sanger stayed on as the editor of each issue until her separation from the American Birth Control League in 1929. The last issue to credit Sanger as editor is the February 1929 issue, and the last mention of Sanger overall in The Birth Control Review is in the May 1929 issue where she is credited as the Director of the Clinical Research Bureau. The editor for the March 1929 to December 1929 issues was Stella Hanau.

During Sanger's time as editor The Birth Control Review began with "Ten Good Reasons for Birth Control," and seemingly Sanger was the one pushing for this part of the magazine because it disappears after the time in which Sanger separated herself from the American Birth Control League. Sanger also appeared to be the reason behind the one-to-two-page part of the magazine dedicated to messages and plights sent in from the magazine's audience, as this segment was common in the Review before Sanger's departure.

Special Collections has issues of Birth Control Review from 1926-1940. They can be located at SpCol HQ763 .B5. To view the publication, visit Special Collections Monday - Friday from 9:00am - 4:00pm.

For more information on this item, contact Jennifer Brannock at Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu or 601.266.4347.

For more information on The Birth Control Review:

Coleman, E. "Birth Control Review: A Communication Tactic." Last modified August 15, 2013. https://sangerpapers.wordpress.com/tag/birth-control-review/.

Gordon, Linda. The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America. Vol. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

Sarch, Amy C. "Dirty Discourse: Birth Control Advertising in the 1920s and 1930s." PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1994.

University, Cornell. "Birth Control Review." Last accessed October 3, 2022. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/59234#:~:text=Birth%20Control%20Review%20was%20published,Blossom%2C%20and%20Elizabeth%20Stuyvesant..

University, Iowa State. "Margaret H. Sanger." Last accessed October 3, 2022. https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/directory/margaret-h-sanger/.

Text by Chloe Nobles, Sophomore, History major

**Items of the Month featured in 2023 and part of 2024 will be the work of Southern Miss students who took HON 303, a seminar held in Fall 2022 focusing on archives and special collections.