Higgins Industries COLLECTION

(Mss 65)

Inventory

Earl K. Long Library

University of New Orleans

May 2002

Contents

Summary

Historical Note

Series, Subseries, and Descriptions

Container List

Index Terms

Procedures for Requesting Special Collections Materials

Summary

Size: 75 linear feet

Geographic

locations: Chiefly New Orleans, La.

Inclusive dates: 1930-2000

Bulk dates: 1940-1960

Summary: Records of a major World War II boat and ship manufacturer located in New Orleans, La. Consists of plans and drawings, company publications, photographs, publications referring to Higgins materiel and products. Includes materials gathered by the Higgins Boat Project in its reconstruction of a replica of the Higgins LCVP P33-21 boat and a bequest of Coe Best, a former Higgins Industries employee.

Source: Gifts, 1976, 1983, 1988, 1990, 2000, and 2002

Access: No restrictions on use in library’s reading room

Copyright: Equitable Equipment Company retains all patent rights now possessed by the company in these records, and the right to examine and make copies of these records. The Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans, retains physical rights.

Citation: Higgins Industries Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

Historical Note

Andrew Jackson Higgins incorporated Higgins Industries, located at 1755 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, on September 26, 1930,. This company sought to develop a boat-building sideline, which began with his previous business, A. J. Higgins Lumber and Export Company. Both companies were put into voluntary receivership in 1931 to forestall bankruptcy, with a friendly judge naming Higgins as his own receiver. Higgins managed to keep Higgins Industries solvent by creating a third business, Boat Services Company, which bought the craft produced by Higgins Industries and sold or leased them to others. This arrangement allowed Higgins to keep nearly fifty people employed and pay off his debts by 1935.

Higgins specialized in developing shallow-draft boats that could easily navigate the bayous and marshes of the Gulf Coast and Central and South America. He built a solid reputation for his company, especially within the petroleum and oil industry. This led to his first government contract in 1937. With World War II that reputation enabled Higgins Industries to become one of the largest manufacturers of U. S. naval combat boats during World War II. The ability of the company to design and produce vessels in record time meant that during the war they produced 20,094 boats, employing 20,000 workers at seven plants in the New Orleans area: St. Charles Ave., City Park, the Industrial Canal, Michoud (and an adjoining plywood plant), Bayou St. John, and Houma. Among the sixty-four products the company produced were various types of landing craft, notably LCVPs (landing craft vehicle, personnel) used in amphibious landings in the Normandy Invasion and countless other actions, and PT boats. Its success and lucrative government contracts enabled the company to expand into other related ventures that resulted in the creation of new subsidiaries, including Higgins Aircraft, Higgins Engine Company, and Higgins Plastics Corporation.

After the war, Higgins attempted to convert this considerable manufacturing capability to the production of such consumer products as appliances and house building materials as well as pleasure boats. In 1945 Frank P. Higgins, Andrew’s brother, took over the retail end of the business and, with his sons, Ed and Jack, opened Higgins Marine Sales Corporation and operated it out of the City Park plant. Beset by labor disputes, Andrew Higgins liquidated Higgins Industries, Inc. on November 9, 1945. In January 1946, he formed a new company, Higgins, Inc., which was to produce commercial boats and pleasure craft. The remaining subsidiaries of Higgins Industries were transferred to the new company in March. Higgins, Inc. never reached the success of its predecessor. By fall 1948 most of the wartime plants had been closed and production was concentrated at the Industrial Canal facility. Andrew Higgins died of a stomach ailment at age sixty-five on August 1, 1952. His sons (Ed, Andrew Jr., Frank, and Roland) continued the business through the 1950s, but mounting debts resulted in the sale of Higgins, Inc. to New York Ship in 1959. New York Ship was subsequently sold to what would eventually become Equitable Equipment Company. Higgins Marine Sales Corporation continued at the old City Park Plant until 1970, when it moved to Thalia Street, where it operated for five more years before closing.

Source:

Strahan, Jerry E. Andrew Jackson Higgins and the Boats that Won World War II. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

Series, Subseries, and Descriptions

Series I. Company Publications (1942-1971)

Items published by Higgins Industries and its successors. Includes copies of the Eureka News Bulletin, Higgins Worker, a torpedo boat manual, and a plan of the Industrial Canal plant.

Series II. Photographs (late 1950s)

Prints and negatives of commercial and pleasure boats, as well as some oil industry equipment, built by the company.

Series III. Audio-Visual Recordings

Silent and sound films created by the company. Also includes several cassette audiotapes recording oral history interviews with several former employees of the company.

Series IV. Research Materials

These were materials collected during the effort to reconstruct a Higgins LCVP (PA33-21). They include trade and popular magazines that featured pictures and articles about Higgins materiel and products; notes and contacts on the reconstruction; and a souvenir program of the commission ceremony.

Series V. Plans and Drawings

Subseries V.1: LCVP PA33-21 Reconstruction

Copies of plans relating to the reconstruction of this World War II vessel, which is displayed at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans.

Subseries V.2: All Other Craft

By far the greatest portion of the collection, this has so far remained unorganized. The LCVP reconstruction project made copies of plans pertinent to their craft and have deposited them with the Special Collections Department in a specially constructed box.

Container List

Numbers at left margin refer to “(Box #)-(Folder #).”

Series I: Company Publications

Box 1

Eureka News Bulletin

65-1 Vol. 1, Nos. 2 & 4 (February & April 1942) (2 items)

65-2 Vol. 1, Nos. 6 & 7 (June & July 1942) (2 items)

65-3 Vol. 1, Nos. 8-9 & 11 (August-September & November 1942) (2 items)

65-4 Vol. 1, No. 12; Vol. 2, No. 1 (December 1942 & January 1943) (2 items)

65-5 Vol. 2, Nos. 2 & 3 (February & March 1943) (2 items)

65-6 Vol. 2, Nos. [4] & 5 (April & May 1943) (2 items)

65-7 Vol. 2, Nos. 6 & 7 (June & July 1943) (2 items)

65-8 Vol. 2, Nos. 8 & 9 (August & September 1943) (2 items)

65-9 Vol. 2, Nos. 10 & 11 (October & November 1943) (2 items)

65-10 Other Higgins & Equitable Publications:

· Instruction Manual for U. S. Navy Motor Torpedo Boats, P T 625 Class [1945];

· Higgins Worker Vol. 2, No. 3 (March 1947) (2 items);

· Diagram of Equitable-Higgins Shipyard, Chef Menteur Highway (U. S. 90) and the Industrial Canal (November 27, 1967);

· “50^th Anniversary Equitable Equipment Company, Inc., 1921-1971” (March 20, 1971).

Series II: Photographs

Both prints and negatives were originally separated and labeled only with the information provided on the packets in which the negatives were placed: title, job number (if any), and a number in the lower left, (which we have called a “group number”). The prints were subsequently numbered from 1 through 286 (in the upper right part of the envelope). The negatives, on the other hand, have been arranged first by titles, then by group numbers. Within group numbers, those negatives that have been identified with a particular print appear first (with the print number in the upper right portion of the envelope) in numerical order, followed by the unnumbered negatives. Some prints have no negative, while some negatives have no corresponding print. These have been designated “no negative” and “negative only” respectively in the notes field of the appendix.

Prints: (See Appendix A for a list of photographs)

Box 2

65-11 Nos. 1-60

65-12 Nos. 61-120

65-13 Nos. 121-163; 168-177

65-14 Nos. 164-167; 178-182

65-15 Nos. 183-268

65-16 Nos. 269-286

65-17 Notes taken by Marie Windell on photos 1-177 as she interviewed Mr. Coe Best.

Negatives: Grouped by the following titles

Box 3

TITLE	GROUP NUMBER	TOTAL NEGATIVES
Untitled	None	29
2 boats on truck	10	2
2 boats on truck	11	4
2 boats on truck	12	4
3 boats on truck	1	3
Aerial View Higgins Plant on Industrial Canal	2	2
Allied Chemical Barge	15	2
Allied Chemical Barge	16	1
Allied Chemical Barge	34	1
Antigua Run	7	4
Bronx Towing	9
Bronx Towing	1	1
Bronx Towing	2	4
Bronx Towing	3	4
Calco [5?]-55 Structures	5	2
Chandeleur Steering	13	3
Copy negative of Chris Craft	14	3
Crandall Dock Accident	11	5
Diamond Chemical Barge	2	4
Diamond Chemical Barge	4	8
East Bay	5	2
Granada Run	8	6
Higgins Boat Show	9	2
Hull Assembly, pleasure boats	4	2
Lee Calongne Pur. Agent	3	2
Lumber mill	6	1
Mahogany Pleasure Boat (Color)	3	1
Mandalay Speed Trial	6	6
No food	None	2
Odeco	None	6
Odeco Drawing Oil Storage Tank	17	1
Odeco Panorama	18	3
Odeco Welders Oil Storage Tank	19	6
Odeco Welders Oil Storage Tank