From the Collection

NMHM/DCA 2014.030.001 a-b. Gift of Francis H. Harlow

1940 Harley-Davidson owned by Francis H. Harlow (22 January 1928 – 1 July 2016)( The Library of Congress’s listing on Francis H Harlow.) , an American theoretical physicist and researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. Harlow was also a noted expert on Pueblo pottery of the Southwest, publishing in this field as well as in physics. In fact, Harlow traded one of his favorite Pueblo pottery jars for this 1940 Harley Davidson and was known to ride it to nearby Pueblos in search of pottery. He donated his extensive collection of Pueblo pottery to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture several years before his death. In 2016, Harlow’s autobiography was published in the collection Adventures in Physics and Pueblo Pottery: Memoirs of a Los Alamos Scientist.

The photo below was featured in an 2016 Pasatiempo article about Harlow’s final book, Adventures in Physics and Pueblo Pottery: Memoirs of a Los Alamos Scientist

“Frank Harlow on his first motorcycle, a 1952 Harley-Davidson 45 side-valve flathead, photo by Patricia Harlow; courtesy of Museum of New Mexico Press”
photo of bookcover: Adventures in Physics and Pueblo Pottery: Memoirs of a Los Alamos Scientist