After 12 years, a collection of arms and armor is back on view in Worcester

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Growing up in central Massachusetts, I remember the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester as a beloved weekend destination and the kind of school field trip that was a big deal – one that inspired pretend sword fights and battles with imaginary dragons. I recall running amongst hundreds of medieval objects on display in the setting of a grand castle hall, complete with stonework and stained glass, gazing at jousting suits on lifesize models of horses and saying hello to a dog in a suit of armor (named Helmutt) made by a Metropolitan Museum of Art armorer curator.

The collection, one of the largest of its kind in America, came from John Woodman Higgins, a Worcester industrialist and owner of Worcester Pressed Steel. He opened the Higgins Armory Museum in 1931. The museum shuttered in 2013.

I recently asked a coworker at my restaurant job if he knew of the Higgins Armory. He responded, “That was one of the saddest days of my life when that closed.” This weekend marks the first time in 12 years that this collection is on display to the public in two new galleries at the Worcester Art Museum.

One of the centerpieces of the permanent exhibition “Arms and Armor” is three suits of armor assembled under a massive backlit chainmail chandelier of sorts. Jeffrey Forgeng, a curator of arms and armor and medieval art at the museum, explained he selected these three figures to frame the gallery as a global collection and to set WAM’s gallery apart from the rest.

“ When you come to any major arms and armor collection in a museum in this country, what you see front and center the moment you come in is going to be some impressive display of European armor, typically of the 1500s,” Forgeng said.

In the center stands a model equipped with 1800s Sudanese armor. To the left, a medieval knight’s get-up from 1500s southern Germany. On the right, a suit from India with influences from the Mughal invasion in the 1500s, which features armor that WAM acquired in 2021.

“ These three suits of armor are very different from each other at a kind of physical, visual level. But they are very much united to each other at a sort of a deeper, symbolic, cultural, human level,” Forgeng said, noting how each evokes power, social status, personal and religious identities in their distinct ways.

While most of the collection is from medieval Europe, there are also some notable objects from elsewhere around the globe. One standout from the Higgins collection is a 17th-century Japanese helmet in the shape of a conch shell, which Forgeng noted is “ something that you could not get out of Japan today. It would be designated too important as a cultural object.”

Over 1,000 objects are on view in “Arms and Armor,” the majority of which are located in the rear gallery, where two massive walls are filled from floor to ceiling with hundreds of objects in an “open storage” concept. Displaying the entirety of the Higgins collection was part of the covenant, the formal agreement between the two museums in order for the acquisition to occur.

In addition to being able to try on helmets and lift swords, this rear gallery is where visitors will get an inside look at work that typically goes on behind closed doors at museums: conservation, restoration and research. Forgeng said he hopes that this access, as well as community programming, helps inspire younger generations. “ I really love the notion of young people — and honestly people of all ages — being able to put themselves into that museum experience to see themselves as an integral part of the museum,” he said.

The museum will use timed entry to manage excitement surrounding the new galleries. An accompanying exhibition, “Power on the Page: Arms and Armor on Paper,” will also be on view and demonstrates how objects from the Higgins collection fit alongside WAM’s other works featuring objects such as Japanese woodblock prints and medieval German combat manuals. It’s a worthwhile trip in its own right, but it will also be a great hangout for those waiting for their appointment to view “Arms and Armor.”