Motorcyclepedia, the official host museum to the Antique Motorcycle Foundation, is opening to the public for the first time on April 16. Located at 250 Lake St. in Newburgh, N.Y., Motorcyclepedia is a project of Edward and Gerald Doering through the Gerald A. Doering Foundation. The 85,000-square-foot facility will display more than 300 motorcycles dating from 1897, plus memorabilia, parts, and a large collection of magazines, technical books and catalogs, videos, posters, and movies. With its four-story sign, pictured here, visitors will find the museum easy to locate.
The museum’s grand-opening exhibits include the “Indian Motorcycle Timeline,” with examples of Springfield Indians for every year from 1902 to 1953; “American Racer,” highlighting early American competition machines; “Chopper City,” displaying examples of the American styling trend that started in the 1960s; plus displays focusing on military and police motorcycles, the manufacturing process, Harley-Davidson, scooters, and even a functional Wall of Death that doubles as a theater for movies and educational programs. The museum also houses the most-recent exhibit of the Antique Motorcycle Foundation, “Fast from the Past: The Competition Motorcycles of Yesteryear,” a collection of 35 machines showing the evolution of racing.
It is the mission of the Gerald A. Doering Foundation to develop, further, and encourage history, safety, and tradition in connection with motorcycles, motorcycle development, motorcycle riding, repair, design, and fabrication, primarily through educational materials, events, programs, historic, and other exhibits, training courses, seminars, lectures, and gatherings.
The Antique Motorcycle Foundation is a charitable, non-profit organization created to tell the story of antique motorcycling so that the role and influence of two-wheeled transportation in our history and technological development can be better understood and appreciated by the public at large.
Motorcyclepedia will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under.— From the Antique Motorcycle Foundation website
A little background: The Antique Motorcycle Foundation was created in 2007 during a restructuring of the Antique Motorcycle Club of America. It is an autonomous, non-profit organization. A major purpose of the foundation is to share the story of the motorcycle with the public at large, educating the public on the role and history of motorcycles in culture and technology. The foundation has created motorcycle exhibits at the Antique Automobile Club of America’s museum in Hershey, Pa., which is affiliated with the Smithsonian. The new Motorcyclepedia museum in Newburgh will become the permanent home of the foundation’s museum exhibits. — Richard Backus
