Photo Album of a 1947 Motorcycle Tour Through Mexico
- Scrapbook with approximately fifty-four photos: forty-four affixed measuring 5 x 7 inches and smaller; one loose measuring 5 x 7
- Mexico and the United States , 1950
Mexico and the United States, 1950. Scrapbook with approximately fifty-four photos: forty-four affixed measuring 5 x 7 inches and smaller; one loose measuring 5 x 7 inches; and nine loose measuring 8 ½ x 10 inches. With nineteen medium format negatives and six pieces of ephemera from Mexico and the US. Scrapbook pages delicate, photos excellent; overall very good to excellent.. After World War II, motorcycling’s popularity in the United States took off, especially among veterans, who had used motorcycles overseas and found them therapeutic back home.[1] At the same time, American tourism to Mexico was increasing as the growing American middle class took advantage of Mexico’s relative political stability.[2] Offered here is a photo album documenting the travels of two young men, Wayne Wolfe and Ron Metzger, on a 1947 motorcycle trip through Mexico. There is little biographical information in the album, though individuals by those names are recorded as having served in World War II, making it likely that Wolfe and Metzger were part of the veteran motorcycle boom.
Photos show the two young men with their matching Indian motorcycles in Texas and Mexico, posing at camp and with people they met along the way, swimming in rivers, and riding donkeys. There is also a shot of the Norteña baseball team, labeled “Pablos’ Team”. Many shots show scenery and Mesoamerican ruins, including one striking shot of one of the young men standing atop a pyramid’s steps with his motorcycle framing the shot from below. Ephemera include a copy of Cancionero Picot (a book of Mexican ballads) and tickets to a bullfight.
Of interest to motorcycle historians and researchers of the postwar tourism industry.
[1] William L. Dulaney, “A Brief History of ‘Outlaw’ Motorcycle Clubs,” International Journal of Motorcycle Studies 1, no. 3 (November 2005).
[2] Jayne Howell, “El Mal Necesario: An Historiography of Tourism, Authenticity, and Identity in Late Twentieth Century Latin America,” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 36, no. 71 (2011): 249–268.
Photos show the two young men with their matching Indian motorcycles in Texas and Mexico, posing at camp and with people they met along the way, swimming in rivers, and riding donkeys. There is also a shot of the Norteña baseball team, labeled “Pablos’ Team”. Many shots show scenery and Mesoamerican ruins, including one striking shot of one of the young men standing atop a pyramid’s steps with his motorcycle framing the shot from below. Ephemera include a copy of Cancionero Picot (a book of Mexican ballads) and tickets to a bullfight.
Of interest to motorcycle historians and researchers of the postwar tourism industry.
[1] William L. Dulaney, “A Brief History of ‘Outlaw’ Motorcycle Clubs,” International Journal of Motorcycle Studies 1, no. 3 (November 2005).
[2] Jayne Howell, “El Mal Necesario: An Historiography of Tourism, Authenticity, and Identity in Late Twentieth Century Latin America,” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 36, no. 71 (2011): 249–268.