Back In Time

You’ve heard the expression “You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.” This thought came to mind when I stepped into the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee last summer during the Motor Company’s 105th anniversary celebration. In an earlier column I wrote about the “Harley high” I was feeling after attending the 95th anniversary celebration. Well, thanks to this incredible motorcycle museum, I wasn’t just Harley high this time, I was Harley high and humble, reveling in the new appreciation I was feeling for the history of a company whose motorcycles have been a part of my life for the last 20 years. Knowing where Harley-Davidson has been puts my passion for riding and my love of the brand in perspective. I love history and museums, but when that history has a direct effect on something I’m involved in, the artifacts I’m looking at and reading about have a greater impact.

“Hey, Genevieve, how’s it going?” Those words startled me out of the place deep inside my brain where I’d been spending the last few seconds … minutes … maybe tens of minutes, gazing into a glass case of old documents from Harley’s first decade in business. I was lost in thought, visualizing what life was like back then. “Oh, hey, John. How are you?” I responded, my head jerking to the side to see a colleague standing next to me. My fellow journalists and I were allowed into the museum a few hours before the general public. We were able to get a glimpse of the exhibits and snap photographs before Harley enthusiasts could overrun the cavernous gray industrial space. I soon realized I was far behind the flow of journalists and photographers with whom I’d entered the building. The wall of century-old documents, catalogs, and letters encased in glass captivated me. There was a typed letter from one of Harley’s founders to a prospective dealer in 1905. The letter stated that a motorcycle cost $200 with a margin of 20 percent; for orders of two or more, the margin was 25 percent. A document dated January 17, 1907, marking the legal incorporation of Harley-Davidson, was placed next to handwritten minutes from the first stockholders’ meeting. I squinted to make out the aged, penciled script etched on the worn, 100-year-old ledger.

The reason I take so long to get through the old stuff is because I can’t help but turn on that time travel machine that’s in my head when I encounter rare pieces of history. It happens every time I walk through a museum, even more so when the experience speaks to me. As my mind wanders, it’s flooded with questions to which I may never know the answers. Did William Harley and Arthur and Walter Davidson know that their journals, letters, business cards, and their first motorcycle, among other items, would end up in a museum someday? Did they have any inkling as to the impact their success would have on future generations? Sure, they were dreamers, but could they have dreamed of this? Had they any idea a woman like me would be fascinated by their everyday business? Of course not. That’s the beauty and mystery of history.

Realizing my time in the Harley museum was limited due to my tight schedule, I spent most of the day strolling through displays of the beginning years. The Harley-Davidson story is an incredible human tale. The notable, and not so notable, achievements and milestones are all accounted for in this building. I learned Harley-Davidson manufactured bicycles in its early days, but ceased production in 1923 due to lack of customers. I looked at an original cover of Harley’s Enthusiast magazine from 1912 that was noteworthy because it was the first to feature a woman. I also learned that Harley-Davidson started marketing motorcycles as a lifestyle as early as 1933. The motto changed from “motorcycles as dependable transportation” to “a motorcycle of distinction and individuality,” a machine that “would stand out and attract attention like a beautiful girl on a windy corner in springtime.” Harley was even pushing riding as a “fun adventure” and “a way to impress peers.” That lifestyle message is pretty much the same today. We’re still trying to impress our peers!

A large part of the museum is interactive, with one big room devoted to Harley’s V-twin engine with movable displays explaining the motor’s evolution and how it works. There are lots of monitors with videos chronicling historical moments like the 1981 buy-back of the company from AMF by shareholders. A whole section on the first floor takes you behind the scenes of the design process, showing what a motorcycle goes through from conception to production. There’s so much more I’d need another two pages to share it all with you. Do yourself a favor and plan a trip to the museum this summer. The experience just may reward you like it did me. AIM

Genevieve Schmitt is the founder of www.WomenRidersNow.com, the leading source for motorcycling lifestyle news. E-mail her at gschmitt@womenridersnow.com.

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