Recently I received a map from the cataloging area that needed some mending and housing then on to the general collection stacks. Of course it being a map there were holes in most of the folded areas and it needed to be humidified and flattened first before any work could be accomplished. After humidification I had a nice flat map to work on with lots of tears. The Armour’s Food Source Map of 1922 was a wealth of information not only on the front but also on the back. The front consisted of bright beautiful colors mapping out the United States and the legend describing the markings. I noted Iowa as having a wide variety of resources included in the state-cattle, corn, dairy, poultry, sheep, swine, wheat, oats, rye, and barley whereas the state of Nevada only had sheep.
The back of the map contained interesting submissions about “pickling winter meats for summer trading,” “refrigeration cars (artificial refrigeration)” and “hundreds of useful articles are now made from animal products once wasted.” Valuable information that shows how far we’ve come in the meat packing industry.
Library and Archives Preservation 