Harley-Davidson, Inc.

Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee by William S. Harley and three Davidson brothers — Arthur, Walter, and William. Harley’s father had emigrated from Manchester in the 1860s; the Davidsons’ father, William C. Davidson, had emigrated from Aberdeen in 1858. The first Harley-Davidson motorcycle was assembled in a 10-by-15-foot wooden shed in the Davidson backyard. The company supplied motorcycles to the U.S. military in both world wars, survived the Great Depression and Japanese competition, and remains America’s only mass-market motorcycle manufacturer. The brand is the defining symbol of American motorcycling.