Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 58-04, Section: A, page: 1423.

Director: John Harley Warner.

My dissertation examines the United States cosmetics industry as it evolved from an insignificant component of the economy to a multi-million dollar concern in the first three decades of the twentieth century. As the cosmetics industry grew, product quality and safety became increasingly suspect. The once useful consumer protection legislation of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act was strained beyond its limits by various actions of so-called "unethical" companies. One of the first initiatives of the New Deal was an attempt to close this loophole in the 1906 Act, an objective reached in 1938.

In choosing to regulate cosmetics, 1930s reformers hoped to impose standards, improving consumer safety and well-being. From the AMA to the AAUW, the Toilet Goods Association to the PTA, the primary concern was consumer welfare. Government and medical professionals, as well as beauty culturists, assumed an ethical responsibility for safeguarding public health: the general populace had a right to eat, drink, medicate and beautify free from the fear of illness or injury. Consumer protection provided a unifying theme in the pursuit of improved regulations for food, drugs and cosmetics.