Higgins

Medusa Head Plate

I know that the title of this blog would lead you to believe that I am only going to focus on being outside with my dog... but my life does go beyond that, and so, my blog will as well.

Besides, today should be recorded. At precisely 3:30 in the afternoon today, Worcester Massachusetts

lost one of the coolest things it possessed. Higgins Armory closed forever today. It had survived 83 years as a private collection of arms and armor. John Higgins, an industrialist in the early 1900's started collecting armor on his many trips to Europe. He created and sustained both the building and the collection. When he died he left the museum $17,000 to continue displaying his collection. This really wasn't a lot of money, but through creative means, the trusties (his children among them) found ways to stretch that initial money into over 80 years of presentation. All of the pieces are now going to be displayed at the Worcester Art Museum. For those familiar with WAM, what is now the library will be the entire collection of arms and armor. They intend to make the entire collection visible at all times to visitors.

I couldn't let the place close without one final visit. Our whole family set out this morning and got

there about ten minutes before the museum opened. As you can see, and as we certainly expected, there was a line. But it moved fast enough and soon we were through the think wooden doors that lead into the Great Hall. I love the Great Hall. It is just as it should be,  two stories tall with barrel vaulted ceilings and a rose window at one end. I remember going there when I was little. I thought we were going to have to drive all day to go there. The place hasn't changed a whole lot. The collection, I believe, is now static. The good thing about museums, is that the collection is always the collection: A dagger and sheath from 700 BCE is still from 700 BCE, it is just a tiny bit older than when I saw it the first time.

There is something special about the middle ages. I know it has been nearly romanticized to death, but hell even the word "romanticized" stems from that time period. The Arthurian Romances (a name given them because of their association with Rome and then redefined into our modern understanding of romance because of the chivalry and lustiness present within Arthurian Legends) reached into who I am, and really the whole world, and found that part of us that valued chivalry and honor, strength

and purity of spirit and purpose. I still have a collection of his tales given to me by my first girlfriend tucked nicely in my library. Suits of Armor are really far more than protective technology, they symbolize, through tales sung by bards and passed down through Oral tradition to audiences of peasants and royalty alike, the true mettle of the human spirit. Beowulf did fight Grendel and the dragons deep under the thick water of a black and poison pond, but also found himself questioning the fate of a world that was slowly turning away from superstition and toward religion. Arthur's true glory wasn't in his might as a warrior, but in his undying spirit and thirst for a justice tempered by mercy embodied in his sword Excalibur. Legend states that his messianic return to Britain waits for them to turn toward the type of purity in justice that he offered.

I understand why John Higgins wanted to collect these pieces. Yes he was a steel worker, and I am sure that on the surface the artistry of the process appealed to him, but I think we go there to feel a bit of Arthur's presence again.

the "Bilbo" Blade

The place is filled with Viking weapons, knights' swords with their own names (like Bilbo! If this sword weren't encased in glass I don't know if I would have been able to resist touching it ... waiting... hoping that that blade would start to glow blue.) armor that was made as much for beauty as it was for self-preservation. Even the wood working is so foreign and at the same time familiar.

I will miss you, breezy, silver building.
Goodbye to Higgins Armory. May the ghosts of the knights that once inhabited those suits of armor still walk your halls.
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