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Higgins Armory Museum
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Higgins Armory Museum
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| Location: | 100 Barber Ave., Worcester, Massachusetts |
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| Built: | 1930 |
| Architect: | Leland,Joseph D. |
| Architectural style: | International Style |
| Governing body: | Private |
| MPS: | Worcester MRA |
| NRHP Reference#: | 80000514[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | March 05, 1980 |
Higgins Armory Museum, located in Worcester, Massachusetts, housed in a steel Art Deco Building, is one of the few museums in the Western Hemisphere devoted to arms and armour.[2] The museum is a public, non-profit museum specializing in the history of arms and armor. John Woodman Higgins built a unique steel and glass structure to house his collection of armor, one of the largest such collections in the world. Currently, the museum features thousands of pieces from the ancient military traditions of Western Europe, Ancient Rome, Feudal Japan, and beyond. It is one of the largest arms and armor collections in the world with over 80 suits of armor spanning the Medieval to renaissance and early modern periods.
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The Museum was founded by John Woodman Higgins in 1927. The building was purpose-built in the Art Deco-style, and is the first free standing glass and steel frame structure of its type to be built in the United States. The Museum has been accredited by the American Association of Museums since the 1970s.
By 1980, the museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, under the management of a public Governing Board. By 1994, the Board, with the help of two multi-million-dollar fund-raising campaigns, modernized the facility in adding accessibility to the disabled, a new climate control systems, new exhibits, and new educational facilities.
The Museum features important Classical world collections including one of three gladiator helmets in the hemisphere, bronze Homeric swords,and a war hammer from the Medieval period. In the dramatically arranged halls of armor, full suits of Japanese Samurai armor stand in splendid contrast with parade armor from the Renaissance. A magnificent early Renaissance/late Medieval Spetum is one of the prides of the collection, which also features a firearm commissioned by Catherine the Great of Russia for her grandson Grand Duke (later Tsar) Alexander I of Russia. Many visitors, however, are especially drawn to the small suits of armor worn by very young princes, the armored dog, and the armored horses displayed on full-scale models.
Higgins Armory is the largest collection of Medieval Arms and Armor outside of Europe
The Museum is also prominent in the local community and hosts a number of educational programs on medieval history and arms and armor, ranging from school workshops and teacher-education to scholarly lectures. Most significantly, the Higgins is a major center of study for Western Martial Arts. Scholars associated with the Museum such as curator Jeffrey Forgeng, William Short, and Ken Mondschein have produced monographs and translations, given papers and sponsored sessions at scholarly conferences, and lectured and demonstrated all over the world. The Higgins Armory Sword Guild, founded in part by Patri J. Pugliese, is a study group that conducts research into Western Martial Arts and demonstrates both at the Museum and in the community. Since the summer of 2009, the Museum has also hosted an ongoing series of twice-weekly classes, the Higgins Academy of the Sword, where students learn to fence with the historical weapons as well as classical fencing.
The John Woodman Higgins Armory (Higgins Armory Museum), John H. Beeler, Military Affairs, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Oct., 1985), pp. 198–202
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