"Like many young, well-off men growing up in the late nineteenth century, Worcester, Massachusetts native John Woodman Higgins (1871-1961) was fascinated by stories of knights and castles - though he was also intrigued by the art and science of metalworking. In 1905, he and his father, industrialist Milton Higgins, purchased the Worcester Ferrule and Manufacturing Company, which they reorganized as the Worcester Pressed Steel Company."
"Advised by his friend Bashford Dean, a zoologist who became an arms and armor expert and the founding curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection, Higgins purchased widely and somewhat indiscriminately and made plans for a museum of his own. The Higgins Armory Museum, a magnificent steel art deco building with an interior that suggested a medieval castle, opened at the height of the Great Depression in 1931."
The Higgins Collection reopened at the Worcester Art Museum with new galleries that echo the original museum's spirit while introducing surprising curatorial choices. John Woodman Higgins combined a fascination with knights and castles and an interest in metalworking to assemble a major arms and armor collection. Higgins and his father reorganized the Worcester Ferrule and Manufacturing Company into the Worcester Pressed Steel Company. Profits from World War I enabled extensive acquisitions during a period when wealthy Americans collected to emulate aristocratic traditions. Guided by Bashford Dean, Higgins opened the Higgins Armory Museum in 1931, initially showcasing industrial metalworking before focusing exclusively on arms and armor.
Read at Medievalists.net
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