In doing research at the Library of Congress I came across numerous articles in the early 1900s mentioning  a famous speed skater named Harley Davidson. Ice skating was very popular and races often headlined the sports pages of America’s newspaper, especially in the northern cities. Davidson was at the height of his fame around 1903 when the Harley-Davidson Motor Company was founded. I often wondered why William Harley’s name got top billing over the Davidson brothers in the founding of the motorcycle company. Could the popularity of ice skater Harley Davidson be one of the reasons?

A photo of Harley Davidson, a famous speed skater in the early 1900s from the March 18, 1903 edition of the Minneapolis Journal. Davidson was very popular and was frequently headlined in the sports pages of that period. One wonders if Davidson’s popularity had an influence on the naming of the famous motorcycle company.