Armour Food Source Map

In this promotional pictorial map of the United States, each state is defined by its agricultural produce. A History of the American Food Industry appears on the verso. It is the fourth edition, preceded by smaller versions of the map issued as part of an Armour & Co., advertisement in 1919, and 1922. 

Armour & Co., was founded by Philip Danforth Armour (1832-1901), and it was he who transferred the company to Chicago in 1875 after “he became convinced that the city would soon replace Cincinnati as the meat packing capital of the country. After all, Chicago had many advantages over Cincinnati, including its accessibility by water, its fast-growing rail system, and its proximity to hog and cattle farms in the Midwest. Eventually, much of Armour's interests became grouped in Chicago” (Ing). The company is credited with many innovations in the meat packing industry: one of the first to use refrigerated cars, a conveyor system on the killing floors, and one of the first to use all parts of an animal in manufacturing. “Thus, out of meat packing came auxiliary industries such as glue, fertilizer, margarine, lard, gelatin, and isinglass. It is said that Armour sometimes checked sewers himself to make certain that no parts were wasted, not even a trace of fat that could have been used somehow” (Deborah S. Ing for ANB).