Al Roker got into character at the Tower of London, trying on a suit of armor before chatting with Bridget Clifford, keeper of the Royal Armories, about some of the weapons used by knights.All that ...

pen and black ink, heightened with white, on blue-gray prepared paper, pen and black ink framing lines ...

Head to the Frist Art Museum’s upper-level galleries, and you’ll come face-to-face with a 500-year-old knight in shining armor. OK, so it’s not an actual knight. The armor, however, is the real deal.

Medieval armor has a bad reputation when it comes to how much movement is possible for a fully-armored and outfitted knight. Chances are you’ve bought into the notion that it resulted in clunky, slow, ...