Photos of HD Dealerships from the 1910's to 1930's

[panhead_jim]

15 photos of HD dealerships, mostly from the 1910's.

Early Harley-Davidson Dealerships

[Steve Slocombe]

Nice pics Jim, but the one with Hummers and Panheads must be around 1950.

[shelbyinparadise]

Nice pics Jim, but the one with Hummers and Panheads must be around 1950.

Sharp eye Steve, is that why you are a Judge?, do not believe the label till you taste the honey

[talbot-2]

Jim...Do you have any specific ID's of the where the dealerships were located? I'm seeking a photo of the "H. L. Dipple" HD dealership, circa 1908-1919, in Indianapolis. Thanks for sharing. Les

[c.o.]

Hey Jim, how sure are you about the photo below the one Steve is referring to? I'm not sure that it is a Harley dealer. I see mention of Jefferson and DeLuxe though.

[vride5]

the one with the three brand new 35 V's is pretty well dated too.

[panhead_jim]

None of them were labeled with that name of that dealership, so I'm assuming that it is not in the group.

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear All, there must still be plenty of work to do in digitising and indexing all these old pictures we now have access to. I have a complete collection of the 'VL Years' Harley Enthusiasts, the copies from the August 1929 new model announcement to December 1936 which seems to be the last month of production. A project I still haven't got round to is digitising and indexing these so that we could find, for instance, Miss Annice Sanford of Chickasaw, Ala., pictured on a '33 VL in the January 1933 Enthusiast page 14. Some of the Indian News magazines have been reproduced year by year as a commercial venture, but there still seems plenty left. Maybe our Virtual Library could have indexed photos so we can look up old dealerships, police departments and so on?

[sirhrmechanic]

When we moved the General Arrangements Drawings for the prewar Rolls-Royce cars from Microfiche to CD-Rom... it was a huge, expensive project to have it done commercially. We are talking about the blueprints for cars from 1906 - 1939. Many damaged. They had been put on rolls of microfiche probably in the '50s and they were none-too-pretty.

What we needed was digital copying. Then 'manual' cleanup where possible. Of thousands of blueprints. And we had no budget, because noone wanted to spend $$ on silly blueprints when we could spend it on gold-braid pocket patches and custom-cufflinks for the club store.

Our solution was to go to a University (in our case Vanderbilt) and the engineering graduate department was willing to find some students who did the document conservation and reconstruction as a graduate project. We got it done for a very reasonable cost. Students got their degrees... everyone happy.

For projects like this... approaching a school like McPherson (Kansas, major automotive restoration program) which has an automotive/transportation history/conservation component to its 4 year program, with a project that students could do for credit and experience would be very worthwhile for everyone.

Just something to think about. I have lots of contacts at McPherson... if someone wants to run with it, let me know and I'll make introductions.

Cheers,

Sirhr

[Steve Slocombe]

Nice idea. I remember a visit to the AMA Museum in Westerville Ohio where they proudly showed me original motorcycle blueprints in expensive file drawers in the basement. This was great, but getting copies of them out to members is the challenge. Earlier work in the Club Virtual library has shown that the market for original literature is different from the market for copies sold for technical information purposes. Dr Henderson's fabulous literature collection was digitised for our Virtual Library without reducing its value when subsequently sold as part of his estate. I guess we need a long term plan for our Virtual Library - is it Matt Olsen now in charge? We have done a decent job on earlier bike brochures, but need to set priorities as we'll always have limited resources.

[sirhrmechanic]

I talked to a friend at McPherson about the project 'in concept' and she said that they would be all over it.

There is a big graphic arts/commercial digital arts program. And the automotive program. Plus students who are overlapping in both. Details would have to be worked out... but they would love to sink their teeth into such a project.

You do bring up a good point about the values and copyright has to be considered (does HD still claim ownership of these earlier images?) But the mechanics of getting it done are not an issue at all.

Cheers,

Sirhr

[Steve Slocombe]

There's plenty of back story on the Pohlmann photographs which I plan to stay away from. On brochures and Enthusiasts we are digitising our own original copies, like the Club Virtual Library, so should not be treading on Intellectual Property Rights. In any case Harley allowed their copyright to lapse on a lot of old material, which is why you see Antique Cycle Supply credited on those reprinted parts books and owners manuals.

[milw.pirates]

Cory,
That is a photo of Dudly Perkins dealership,besides Harley davidson he was a Jefferson dealer.

[c.o.]

I have to admit, I slipped on that one Ken! I think I have a photo somewhere of Mr. Perkins sitting on a Jefferson. Thanks for the clarification.