Harley-Davidson Museum

Harley-Davidson Museum
Established July 12, 2008
Location Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Coordinates 43°01′52″N 87°54′58″W / 43.031°N 87.916°W / 43.031; -87.916Coordinates: 43°01′52″N 87°54′58″W / 43.031°N 87.916°W / 43.031; -87.916
Type Transport museum
Collection size Harley-Davidson motorcycle and artifacts
Visitors Est. 300,000 visitors in 2008[1]
Website www.harley-davidson.com/museum

The Harley-Davidson Museum is a North American museum near downtown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin celebrating the more than 100-year history of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.[2] The 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) three building complex on 20 acres (81,000 m2) along the Menomonee River bank contains more than 450 Harley-Davidson motorcycles and hundreds of thousands of artifacts from the Harley-Davidson Motor Company's 110-year history.[2] The museum attracts an estimated 300,000 visitors annually.[1]

History

The museum opened to the public on July 12, 2008, on a 20 acres (81,000 m2) site in the Menomonee Valley.[2] The museum was built in an historically industrial area of Milwaukee. Prior to Harley-Davidson's purchase of the land from the city, the site was formerly used by the Milwaukee Department of Public Works, Lakeshore Sand Company, and Morton Salt.[3] A 4 feet (1.2 m) layer of imported soil was added to combat the contaminated soil. New vegetation was planted to restore the landscape to its riparian state.[4]

In late February 2006, designs for the museum were unveiled.[5] The designs were created by James Biber, a partner at Pentagram, his team, and Michael Zweck-Bonner, an associate at Pentagram.[6] Abbott Miller, a partner at Pentagram, designed the museum's permanent exhibitions. The firm designed the museum over a period of eight years.[7]

On June 1, 2006, Harley-Davidson began the construction of the $75 million complex with a groundbreaking ceremony that included legendary Harley-Davidson dirt track motorcycle racer, Scott Parker, breaking ground by doing a burnout with a Harley-Davidson XL883R Sportster, instead of with the traditional golden shovel.[8] The site includes parking spaces for 1,000 motorcycles and 500 cars. The Museum's facade also features a 17-foot (5.2 m)-tall, steel Harley-Davidson sign.[9]

Exhibits

Motorcycle procession display
Wooden board track section
Captain America replica bike from Easy Rider
Gas tank gallery

The museum’s galleries permanent exhibitions, spread throughout two floors, in addition to temporary exhibits and the motor company’s archives. The complex also includes a restaurant, café, retail shop, and special event spaces.[1]

Also on display are historic Harley-Davidson items that tell the company's story and history, such as photographs, posters, advertisements, clothes, trophies, video footage of vintage and contemporary motorcycling, and interactive exhibits, including 10 motorcycles that visitors can sit on.[10]

On the museum’s upper level, a procession of motorcycles is displayed down the center of the main hall, running the length of the building, with galleries on either side.[11]

The Harley-Davidson Journey

Along the east side of the upstairs galleries, a series of interconnected galleries exhibit the Harley-Davidson's chronological history.[2] The galleries relate the company's history from its origins in a 10x15-foot wooden shack to its current status as the top U.S. motorcycle manufacturer, producing more than 330,000 bikes each year.[7] The centerpiece of the gallery is "Serial Number One", the oldest known Harley-Davidson in existence, which is encased in glass. The glass enclosure sits within a floor-embedded, illuminated outline of the backyard shed the motor company was founded in.[11]

The Engine Room

The museum's second floor galleries begin with the Engine Room. A Knucklehead engine is displayed disassembled into several pieces. The Engine Room also features several interactive touch screen elements that show how Harley motors, including Panhead and Shovelhead motors work.[12]

Clubs and Competition

The Clubs and Competition gallery includes displays and information about Harley-Davidson's racing history. The gallery includes a section of a replica wooden board track, suspended in the air at a 45-degree incline. The wooden track features vintage video footage of actual board track races, and attached 1920s-era Harley-Davidson racing motorcycles; the bikes that raced on board tracks at 100 miles -per-hour. Fatalities were common, which led to the banning of wooden board tracks for motorcycle racing.[7]

The museum's upper floor exhibits also include the Gas Tank Gallery, formerly part of the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Open Road Tour. The exhibit displays 100 of Harley-Davidson's most memorable tank graphics, spanning 70 years, selected by the company's styling department and reproduced on "Fat Bob" tanks.[11]

Custom Culture

The Custom Culture gallery covers Harley-Davidson's impact on American and global culture. The centerpiece of the Custom Culture Gallery is "King Kong", a 13-foot (4.0 m)-long, two-engine Harley-Davidson motorcycle customized by Felix Predko. The exhibit also features exact replicas of the customized Harley-Davidson bikes ridden by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in the 1969 American movie, "Easy Rider", including Fonda's "Captain America" chopper and Hopper's "Billy Bike". Two of each of the two choppers were created, and one "Captain America" was destroyed in the film's production.[13]

Corporate Archives & Collections

Motorcycle archives at Harley-Davidson museum

The Harley-Davidson Motor Company's corporate archives are also housed on the museum's grounds. The archives supplied more than 85% of the items on display in the museum.[12] Since 1915, the company's founders decided to pull one bike from the production line to be preserved in an archive.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Harley Museum Goes the Whole Hog, Business Week, Retrieved on June 29, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 4 About H-D Museum, Harley-Davidson Museum Official Website, Retrieved on March 17, 2007
  3. ↑ High on the hog, My Midwest Magazine, Retrieved on June 29, 2009
  4. ↑ Mola, Francesca Zamora (2012). The Sourcebook of Contemporary Urban design (1st ed.). New York: Harper Design. pp. 459–464. ISBN 978-0-06-211358-0.
  5. ↑ New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum, Pentagram, Retrieved on June 30, 2009
  6. ↑ Disciples of Harley-Davidson Get Their Church, New York Times Wheels Blog, Retrieved on July 10, 2009
  7. 1 2 3 4 Head Out on the Highway To the Harley Museum, Wall Street Journal Online, Retrieved on June 30, 2009
  8. ↑ A Museum Goes HOG Wild, Growing Bolder, Retrieved on June 30, 2009. "Attendees were given clear vial key chains to keep some of the dirt as a keepsake. The burnout was followed by U2's Beautiful Day blasting from the speakers. The groundbreaking was concepted by local Milwaukee PR agency Caffeine Communications."
  9. ↑ Hog Heaven, Newsweek, Retrieved on August 10, 2009
  10. ↑ Celebrity bikes to go on display at new Harley-Davidson Museum, USA Today, Retrieved on June 30, 2009
  11. 1 2 3 New Work: Harley-Davidson Museum, Pentagram.com, Retrieved on July 16, 2009
  12. 1 2 The new Harley-Davidson Museum is hog heaven, L.A. Times, Retrieved on July 10, 2009
  13. ↑ Wasef, Basem; Leno, Jay (2007), Legendary Motorcycles: The Stories and Bikes Made Famous by Elvis, Peter Fonda, Kenny Roberts and Other Motorcycling Greats, MotorBooks International, pp. 47–52, ISBN 0-7603-3070-0, retrieved 2011-08-29
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Harley-Davidson Museum panorama, view from parking lot
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