On a recent trip to Boston I made the trip over to the Higgins Armory. After all I'd heard it was the second biggest collection in the country and the largest existing privately collected collection in the United States. After a few wrong turns (man they need a better sign right after you cross that bridge) I finally found the place.

I must say I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps that was because my primary interest is sword rather then armor or pole arms. I just expected more from the "second biggest collection in the country." Am I the only one that felt sort of let down? Don't get me wrong if you are in the Boston area it is worth the trip, but I certainly wouldn't drive there from out of state or anything. :(

I drove from upstate NY (near Albany) 2.5-3 hours and wasn't dissapointed at all. I too was primarily interested in swords, and while they are not as well represented as I would have liked, it wasn't bad.

I was very pleased that, with a few exceptions, I could photograph anything I wanted and get really close to many examples. A particular goal of that trip was to study armour closures and mail. I met that goal without any interference at all.

Russ the thing that makes Higgins notworthy is the manner in which the armour is displayed . Most collections here in the states are in art museums and the armour is treated as such ( 5' away behind plexiglass and a velvet rope ) . In Higgins the armour for the most part is right there and as long as you don't actually touch it you can get as close as you want . You can see the constructional details , the repairs , the misspunched holes the seams on the two piece helmet bowels. I've seen guys with bore lights and dental mirrors taped together looking inside of the breast and back plates .
This makes it pretty valuable to some one like me as a resource . I've been three times and will go again .

I made a detour to Higgens last year - I remember, as you say Russ, that their collection as far as "swords" is a bit limited, but I'm more of an armour fan anyways. I saw a few more than Alexi, because of a different display (whee! six swords instead of four!), but it's mostly a place for armour. As far as armour, what I saw made the trip worth it because you could get right up and "breathe" on it (no drooling allowed). Granted, they were cleaning the third story, so I didn't get to see that (it's a bane - that happened in the Tower as well :eek: ), but I'd go back in a flash.

Alexi - I remember when you posted those pictures, and I meant to ask you: when I asked about photos, they said they weren't allowed - how did you manage to strong arm them into taking photos? Any tips? :D

No tips needed I just asked and they said photograph away. Perhaps it is just an arms vs armor thing. I prefer to focus on the arms. Sure I know that arms evolved to deal with the evolving armor but nevertheless seeing a few more sharp pointy thing would have been preferable to seeing yet another parade suit of armor. Sadly I also had the urge to push the erstwhile guide down the stairs... :) I think there was a grand total of one original sword that I saw, everything else was a reproduction. I did find the bit of history about how the museum was founded to be interesting. Did anyone else notice that bit in the "hands on" hallway where they had a miniature model of the battle of "Grandson." I thought about pointing out the error but decided that would be reasonably priggish of me.

Dang, I just must have had a real cranky guide... shucks
Wow, they had better be doing/have done something good with that upper level - was it open when you were there, Russ?

I was there last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed the WMA demonstration. Plus, the building is fantastic.