The Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is relatively young. It was envisioned by Harley-Davidson around the turn of the last century; the Pentagram architectural firm’s James Biber and Michael Zweck-Bronner did the architectural exhibit work and HGA was the architect of record. In-house staff led by Jim Fricke produced the original exhibition plan at an estimated cost of $75 million.
The Museum sits on a 20-acre former industrial site along Milwaukee’s Menomonee River, an area previously used by the Department of Water and Power, the Lakeshore Sand Co., and Morton Salt. Harley-Davidson broke ground in June 2006 with style. Instead of a more traditional ground-breaking shovel, legendary flat tracker Scott Parker sent soil flying with a Sportster burnout. The H-D Museum opened two years later in July 2008. My wife Sue and I visited it a few weeks ago.
The Museum entrance features a 16-foot-tall bronze sculpture, By the Horns, by Jeff Decker. Several custom Harleys are parked near the entrance; visitors’ bikes are also parked nearby. The grounds have the feel of the Sturgis or Daytona events, and the buildings’ European-cathedral-inspired layout and low lighting levels make for a near-religious experience. Instead of stained glass, there are polished concrete floors, Harley’s orange and black colors, and the creative use of weathered beams and other industrial artifacts. All combine to create a sense of eternity, toughness, strength, and even omniscience, the same feelings that Harleys often inspire in their owners. There are three main exhibit halls, along with an adjoining restaurant, coffee bar, and Harleyana store. It is a huge place. Although the lighting is subdued, photography, including flash, is allowed. It is hard to get decent photos with flash; the photos you see here were all shot with ambient lighting.
Where Harley’s history comes to life
There are nine exhibit areas, some permanent and some that rotate to keep interest and attendance up. The first of the permanent exhibits dominates the museum. It is a collection called the Motorcycle Galleries, and it runs the length of the main hall. It is a 180-foot-long three-motorcycle-wide display of stunningly beautiful, visually arresting vintage machines from Harley’s first 50 years. The detail, the paint, the engines, and the simply perfect overall condition of each machine add to the reverential aura. Some parts of the collection were new in the 1920s and 1930s, showing maybe 10 to 15 roll-around miles. The motorcycles appear restored but are in fact original factory finishes, with only their tires replaced. For those of us who own or have owned a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, this is the Temple Mount.
“Mama Tried,” a 1968 Merle Haggard song emphasizing a nonconformist outlook on life, is the Museum’s name for a collection of customized Harley-Davidsons. The bikes cover a broad spectrum of Harley’s production history. These motorcycles go way beyond the wildly impractical, huge-front-wheel monstrosities and clichéd choppers often seen at custom bike shows. Many are motorcycles reflecting the custom touches typical Harley riders might add, if there is such a thing as a typical Harley rider. The motorcycles range from a Sportster-based, dual-sport, offroad machine to Shinya Kimura’s “Spike,” a Knucklehead-engined, heavy-metal-style road warrior.
Mi Papi Has A Motorcycle, another exhibit, occupies an entire hall with large storyboards and artwork taken from the book, Mi Papi Has a Motorcycle, the Spanish-language Isabel Quintero children’s book. I read the book when it was published a few years ago, and even though I do not speak Spanish, I could follow and enjoy it. The exhibit is both a literary and an art display, without any physical motorcycles, but it works. Compliments to Harley for including something kids (and grownup kids) can enjoy.
The Engine Wall is, in a word, magnificent. It displays Harley-Davidson engines including the big twins, the smaller twins (Sportsters and the KH engines), and other engines in the Harley family tree. Harley put a lot of thought and work into The Engine Wall, and the exhibit is one of my favorites. There is the obvious (the engines on display) and there’s the subtle (the slight forward tilt of the orange wall that presents the engines straight on as viewed from the visitor’s perspective). The colors are classic Harley: Black, orange, and chrome. It is one of the best displays I’ve ever seen of any type in any museum, and the whole thing just works. I had always found the Harley engine evolution story mildly confusing; this dramatic display cleared it all up for me. Again, kudos to Harley.
For me, any Harley’s visual presence is defined by two dominant features: the engine, and the fuel tank. The Museum recognizes this duality with The Engine Wall mentioned above and its complementary Tank Wall. The Tank Wall displays Harley-Davidson fuel tanks and their iconic paint themes in a format and a setting appropriate for the artistry inherent in Harley’s styling genius. I had previously seen photos of The Tank Wall; seeing it in person is a visual delight. I felt more like a kid in a candy store in this exhibit than anywhere else.
Harley-Davidson history is rooted in camaraderie and competition, and the Museum includes an area devoted to these areas. The Clubs and Competition exhibit features a 45-degree angled board track with vintage race bikes and projected images of motorcycle racers and accompanying engine sounds. Vintage Harley hill climbers, famous 1930s racer Joe Petrali’s land speed record Knucklehead, and more are featured here. The Petrali streamliner is stunning.
The Military Motorcycles exhibit features World War II Harley-Davidsons, and it is the most extensive and impressive collection of military Harleys I have ever seen. I wrote a book about military motorcycles several years ago long before the Museum opened; my interest in this exhibit was naturally elevated. Harley-Davidson built four military motorcycles during World War II: The WLA, the WLC, the Knucklehead EL, and the XA. Harley-Davidson sold 88,000 military motorcycles during the war to the United States, England, Canada, China, India, and Russia. In addition to the WLA, the exhibit includes a relatively rare U.S. Navy Shore Patrol 45 (complete with sidecar), and the XA (Harley-Davidson’s shaft-drive, horizontally opposed twin; a clone based on BMWs captured during the North African campaign).
One of the more intriguing but essentially inaccessible areas is the Archives. An elevator takes you to the Museum’s third floor, where you can peer through a window and a double wire fence to see a collection of motorcycles from each year of Harley-Davidson production, along with other Harleys featuring unusual provenance. One is Elvis Presley’s 1956 KH.
Art and Engineering is one of the current temporary exhibits. It shows how Harley-Davidson progresses from concepts to engineering new motorcycle designs. It is presented in an easy-to-follow, but not-overly-technical manner. When the motorcycling press discovered Willie G. Davidson 50 years ago (in the days of the Super Glide, the XLCR Cafe Racer, the Electra Glide Classic, the Low Rider, and more), the print media waxed eloquent about how Harley went to motorcycle events, studied how riders customized their motorcycles, and fed those inputs into the Milwaukee engineering process. That was good stuff and those were good inputs in the 1970s and 1980s, but I found little of that in the Art and Engineering exhibit. I was hoping to understand how Harley selected new motorcycle styles and performance parameters, and perhaps gain insights into Harley’s future directions.
A Museum worth the ride
At the tail end of our path through the Harley Museum, there is an area with new Harleys that lends itself to posing for photos. A fellow visitor (a nice guy from the Czech Republic, demonstrating Harley’s international reach) offered to take a picture of Sue and me with my cell phone. The resulting photo looks good; our smiles are real.
So there you have it: my Harley-Davidson Museum impressions. Sue and I had a good time. We were there for about three hours, but we could have spent the entire day. My slight disappointment in the temporary Art and Engineering exhibit notwithstanding, anyone who rides or has even a passing interest in the American icon that is Harley-Davidson should visit the Museum. It is a bucket-list destination.
Located at 400 W. Canal Street in Milwaukee, the Harley-Davidson Museum is easy to get to. Plug it into any navigation program and you’ll ride right up to the front door. There’s plenty of parking. We visited the museum on a weekday, so it was not too crowded, but I’m guessing that’s not the case on the weekends. Admission is a reasonable $24 per person; it was less for us because we qualify for the geezer discount (which knocks it down to $20). MC
