Photography by Bob Stokstad
Ninety-three years ago, William Harley and Arthur Davidson started a tradition by setting aside at least one new motorcycle from each year’s production run. The hundreds of original motorcycles that The Motor Company preserved in subsequent decades are the core of the new Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, which opened on July 12. The impressive design of the complex shows the value Harley-Davidson places on its history, not to mention the deep pockets needed to present it. Thousands of people have visited since the museum opened and another 30,000 passed through its halls during the four days of H-D’s 105th anniversary celebration at the end of August.
The many galleries tell the 105-year history of Harley Davidson. “We were fortunate to be designing the building at the same time as the exhibits,” explains museum curator Jim Fricke, “and came up with the idea that when you walk into the museum, what you’re looking at is this amazing parade of bikes coming at you.” Sounds pervade the experience as well, from World War II newsreels of motorcycle training to a clip of Peter Fonda’s rebel cry in The Wild Angels; “…we wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man.” And next to the flat-panel monitors are the objects in the movies—camouflaged military sidecar rigs and a replica of Fonda’s Easy Riderchopper (the original, of course, was destroyed in making the movie).
A full-scale section of a 1920s board-track is just one of the many visually stunning displays. The five original racing machines on the track look fast just standing still. Push a button and hear them roar. Push another button and see them coming at you in an original-period movie projected onto the polished hardwood track.
Harley-Davidson history transcends heavyweight motorcycles to include snowmobiles (“Ride a Harley all year ’round” was the slogan), pleasure boats, big scooters (does Topper ring a bell?) and small bikes (the Aermacchi machines renamed as Harleys). The exhibits chronicle the years of diversification when Harley-Davidson was a subsidiary of American Machine and Foundry in the ’60s and ’70s, as well as the courageous buy-back of the company by 13 executives in 1981. Harley-Davidson’s success story is one that stands out in motorcycling and industrial history.
The H-D story, told so well inside the museum, is evident outside as well. The monumental architecture and expansive layout of the site, which include large buildings devoted to archives and the inevitable (but most welcome) restaurants and gift shop, impresses the visitor. You feel the story most of all when standing next to and looking up at the “Hill Climber.” This bronze sculpture—16 feet tall and 2.5 tons—embodies the essence of riding a motorcycle, the challenge, exhilaration and freedom. A gift from Nancy and Willie G. Davidson to Harley-Davidson enthusiasts, it is a metal metaphor for the entire museum.
