What Is the Surprising Wartime Origin of Kleenex Tissues?

It’s a product that almost all of us keep in our houses (or cars, backpacks, or pockets), but how much do you know about the history of Kleenex tissues?

Surprisingly, Kleenex owes its existence to World War I. Cotton was in short supply during the war, as it was used for uniforms and bandages. Kimberly-Clark, a Wisconsin-based paper manufacturer, saw an opportunity for a useful new product. They began making “Cellucotton,” a wood pulp-derived cotton substitute that turned out to have several wartime uses.

Due to its excellent absorbency (five times better than cotton and much cheaper to produce), Cellucotton was an excellent substitute for cotton bandages. This eventually led Kimberly-Clark to develop Kotex sanitary pads, which consisted of 40 layers of Cellucotton in a fine gauze sheath. It was an ideal way for the company to use surplus Cellucotton once the war ended. To this day, Kotex remains a familiar brand of period products.

World War I was the first conflict to involve gas warfare, a devastating development that left countries scrambling for an effective way to protect their soldiers from mustard, chlorine, and other poisonous chemical agents. The respirator-based gas masks of the day required filters that were traditionally made from thin strips of cotton. Kimberly-Clark scientists worked on developing a thin, flattened version of Cellucotton crepe paper that could serve as a gas mask filter, though the war ended before these could be mass-produced.

The thin sheets of Cellucotton that Kimberly-Clark had experimented with as gas mask filters found widespread peacetime use. Kleenex was introduced in June 1924, first as a makeup and cold cream remover and then as a disposable pocket handkerchief. The earliest Kleenex marketing efforts focused on how even Hollywood stars like Jean Harlow and Helen Hayes were using Kleenex to help remove their makeup.

Interestingly, the use of Kleenex as a disposable paper handkerchief was unintentional but soon became the main reason people bought the product. By the 1930s, Kimberly-Clark realized that many consumers were using Kleenex when they had a cold, which sparked the brand’s longstanding reputation as a hygienic way to deal with sneezes and runny noses.

From bandages and gas mask filters to sanitary pads and tissues: