Riggs served in an army medical unit in France during World War I before being able to pursue his artistic studies at the Acad‚mie Julian in Paris, and at the Art Students League in New York. Riggs soon attained prominence as a painter and lithographer, and was noted for his subject matter drawn from the worlds of circuses and prizefighting. He was especially recognized for his work in the graphic arts, and it was in this media classification he was elected to the Academy.
During his career Riggs traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia and acquired a large collection of Native African as well as American Indian artifacts, reflective of his strong interest in primitive tribal life. He also avidly pursued the study of reptiles and amphibians, keeping a personal collection of snakes, lizards and turtles, and listing his membership in the Philadelphia Zoological Society, and Society of Ichtheology and Herpetology equally with those in the Philadelphia Print, and Watercolor Clubs on his Academy biographical questionaire. The popular press was much taken with his remark on being informed of his election to Associate--obviously made in the presence of a newspaper reporter--that he considered it a high honor but was prouder of his pet boa constrictor.
During his later career Riggs was an instructor at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art.
