The Harley Davidson Archives

History is important to most people. Many people keep photo albums and video tapes of major events in their family. The government keeps records of as many activities as possible. Academics try to record the history of the world, countries, counties, towns, and anything else that is notable. We have museums, libraries, and archives all over the world. All of these things let us look at what has happened and use that to try to gain an edge on what will happen. This happens within companies as well. Many large organizations celebrate their history; Disney, Coca Cola, Miller Brewing, and the Iconic Harley Davidson Motorcycles.

In fact Harley Davidson is currently building a new museum in downtown Milwaukee. The Museum will be in a great location with a lot of green-park space along a river. Interestingly enough Harley Davidson has been committed to keeping their legacy strong since the company was founded. Harley Davidson has kept an archive of records, documents, news media, and products for what is basically the existence of their company. In fact the Harley Davidson Archives located at their corporate headquarters in Milwaukee Wisconsin have at least one example of a production bike from every year they produced motorcycles. Not only do they keep bikes but other products as well. At one time or another they produced golf-karts, scooters, snowmobiles, and other motorized vehicles. They also keep examples of the apparel the have sold through the years. It is very complete collection. This collection will be the basis for the new museum, though the company is also going to bring in outside exhibits and purchase more pieces for display.

In the past Harley Davidson would open up these archives for a limited display to employees, suppliers, and contractors. I was able to visit this year during the last open archive they will have, as all of the items are going to be moved to the museum. It is a spectacular collection. They have bikes (though not the original) created from the first run of motorcycles to those that came off the line in 2006. While you are able to view most of the items in the collection the archive staff selects 10 bikes or so to emphasize. They put signs on them and hand out flyers with a more detailed history on the bike. There were literally a couple of hundred bikes in a single room. My favorites though were those from the first couple of years and then the monsters that were produced in the fifties. If you think today’s bikes are large you haven’t seen the Road Kings from the past! These things are 20% bigger and probably 30% heavier bikes - absolutely amazing.

Other notable bikes were a replica of the bike used in the movie Easy Rider, a bike that was customized by a couple that was covered from end to end in rhinestones, the old army bikes from WWII, bikes with stretched frames designed to climb mountains, drag bikes, some of the older police bikes, the Vespa style scooters, the many light bikes Harley produced in the 60’s, and again the monster’s the produced in the 50’s. They really have an amazing past and it is really interesting to see how bright the future is for this country. Especially when you consider they almost went out of business in the 1980’s. When the Museum opens it will be a must see, though not all of the bikes for exhibit when I went to see the archives will be on display. They will routinely rotate the collection so that every time you go there will be something different.