Heads up adventurous petrolheads. The Petersen Museum is hosting a ride-in opening reception for the ADV: OVERLAND 2021 exhibition on July 15th. The exhibition is curated by Paul d’Orleans and produced by the Motorcycle Arts Foundation with support from Harley-Davidson. Dress code is adventure formal.
Adventure (ADV) and overland motoring are as old as the first motorized wheels and as modern as the future of manned space travel. In the pioneering era of the late 19th century, every journey was an adventure, and long-distance overland tours were worthy of news reports. Tales of perilous travel to far-off places are cultural touchstones and among the oldest recorded literature, from Homer’s 3,000-year-old Odyssey to Xuanzang’s account of his Silk Road overland trip to India in 626.
The first motor vehicle to cross the USA was a motorcycle, followed three weeks later by the first car, in 1903. The first motorcycle to circle the globe was a Henderson Four, in 1912. Their stories were lost in the noise of the 20th century, and many who followed in their wheel-tracks mistakenly believed they were the first. Only in the 21st century has a chronology of motorized overland motorcycling come into focus, as the genre has exploded in popularity and spurred research.
Regardless of “firsts,” overland adventurers are a rare and brave breed, and many of their motorcycles are displayed here. ADV:Overland also features very special three-, four-, and more-wheeled vehicles built for the long haul, their science-fiction off-world counterparts, and models of actual Mars rovers from our friends at NASA/JPL.
Tickets are $25 via https://www.petersen.org/
