The Armour & Company meat packing business was started in 1867 by Phillip Danforth Armour and by the 1890s it had become the world’s largest meat packers. Multiple generations of the Armour family continued in the business, including A. Watson Armour, whose grandfather, Andrew Watson Armour, was P. D. Armour’s brother.

A. Watson Armour started with the family business in Kansas and was eventually sent to Chicago in the early 1900s to become a director of Armour & Company.

With the outbreak of World War I, some companies hired traveling musical groups to provide patriotic programs and corporate advertising.

This letter was sent from A. Watson Armour to the director of his company’s female drum and bugle corp, Margaret Grisley. The letter expresses his gratitude for the work the group is doing. It also says that he included a gold coin as a token of his appreciation.

The letter is an outstanding piece of ephemera with ties to World War I, the famous Armour family, and an unusual job opportunity for female musicians.