Higgins Armory

The Higgins Armory Museum evolved from a private collection of arms and armor from medieval and Renaissance Europe, Feudal Japan and ancient Greece and Rome into a world-renowned museum. The founder, John Woodman Higgins, a leading Worcester industrialist, spent a lifetime building his collection. In 1929, he constructed a four-story building to house it, and in the same year, received a charter for a museum of historical and modern metal artifacts.

In 1979 the Museum passed out of the hands of the Higgins family and into the control of a public governing board. The Board revised the original mission statement, hired its first professional director, and set out to create a new presence in the museum world, thereby asserting its claim to greater public support.