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by William Petrick
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The museum's collection of condoms, however, are far more benign. Many would probably be inspiration for the buyers at Condomania. There are early Egyptian "penis protectors" made of various animal membranes, the fine linen versions favored by Casanova, and even the cloth style said to have been introduced by Dr. Condom, a physician for the very amorous King Charles II. All are cleanly sheathed under glass for viewing by visitors.

The museum's most extensive wing, however, is left for I.U.D.'s. Long before women were struggling with the Dalkon shield, inter-uterine devices were being manufactured in a dizzying array of sizes, shapes and materials. The History of Contraception Museum owns some 300 examples,including a handmade model from Morocco, another that resembles a shepherd's staff and another carved from a precious jewel in the shape of a crown. The vast majority of modern women, of course, no longer need rely on primitive methods of contraception. The Pill alone changed all that. But visitors to the museum might be surprised to learn that the availability and use of oral contraception also stretches back to biblical times and further. Over 4,000 years ago, women in China drank mercury to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Centuries later, women in India imbibed carrot seeds. In North America, the museum learned that women in New Brunswick made a kind of white lightening brewed with dried beaver testicles.

Of course, no one really knows how effective these different brews proved to be. But then, as now, there is no perfect contraceptive. Yet, as the evidence gathered in the Museum of the History of Contraception suggests, the failure to find the perfect contraceptive was not for lack of effort or ingenuity.