 Harley-Davidson Museum from across theMenomonee River | |
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| Established | July 12, 2008; 17 years ago (2008-07-12) |
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| Location | Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 43°01′52″N87°54′58″W / 43.031°N 87.916°W /43.031; -87.916 |
| Type | Transport museum |
| Collection size | Harley-Davidson motorcycle and artifacts |
| Public transit access |  MCTS |
| Website | Official website |
TheHarley-Davidson Museum is a museum inMilwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It chronicles the history ofHarley-Davidson, an Americanmotorcycle manufacturer founded in 1903 known for its loyalbrand community.[1][2] The 130,000 square foot (12,077.3952 m2) three-building complex on 20 acres (8.0937128448 ha) along theMenomonee River bank contains more than 450 Harley-Davidson motorcycles and hundreds of thousands of artifacts from Harley-Davidson's 120-year history.[1]
The museum opened to the public on July 12, 2008, on a 20-acre (8.0937128448 ha) site in theMenomonee Valley.[1] The museum was built in a 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, andMorton Salt.[3] A 4-foot (1.2192 m) layer of imported soil was added to combat the contaminated soil. New vegetation was planted to restore the landscape to itsriparian state.[4]
In late February 2006, designs for the museum were unveiled.[5] The designs were created byJames 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 theUS$75 million (equivalent toUS$117,000,000 in 2024) 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 façade also features a 17-foot (5.1816 m) tall, steel Harley-Davidson sign.[9]
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.[5]
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.[5]
Along the east side of the upstairs galleries, a series of interconnected galleries exhibit the Harley-Davidson's chronological history.[1] The galleries relate the company's history from its origins in a 10 × 15 foot (3.048 x 4.572 m) 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.[5]
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.[11]
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 mph (160.9344 km/h). 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.[5]
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 (3.9624 m) long, two-engine Harley-Davidson motorcycle customized by Felix Predko. The exhibit also features exact replicas of thecustomized Harley-Davidson bikes ridden byPeter Fonda andDennis 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.[12]
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.[11] Since 1915, the company's founders decided to pull one bike from the production line to be preserved in an archive.[7] One motorcycle on display was recovered on a beach inBritish Columbia after being swept out to sea more than 4,000 miles (6,437.376 km) away in atsunami that hit Japan in 2011.[13]
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