Archive of working material belonging to Delta Associates founder Lynn Wineland, including advertising art, production materials, and ephemera relating to motorcycling

Alhambra, CA: Delta Associates, 1949-1976. Large archive of original art, sketchbooks, illustrations, and advertising production materials, and a collection of catalogs, brochures, booklets, flyers, and magazines, all relating to the Southern California off-road motorcycle scene (and motorcycles in general) from Lynn Wineland and his "Delta Associates" design and advertising firm. A voluminous collection featuring dozens of pieces of production materials, art, and photographs, as well as over 50 pieces of printed motorcycle promotional materials of the period. The material in the archive dates from the late 1940s through the late 1970s, with the bulk from the late 1960s to mid 1970s, the peak of the SoCal off-road motorcycle scene.

Complete details available on request, potentially interested buyers only please.

Wineland's importance and influence on the West Coast hot rod and motorcycle scene is difficult to overstate. In the late 1930s, when Wineland was still a teenager, he built his first hot rod from a 1929 Ford Roadster and became involved in the Long Beach hot rod scene. Later, during a brief stint in the Air Force in the late 1940s, while stationed in Dayton, Ohio, he attended the Dayton Art Institute, and was concurrently a valuable source of So-Cal equipment to the local Midwest rodders, earning him the nickname "the damned hood-lifter," and shortly thereafter started the Hoodlifters car club. After returning to California, Wineland became the Art Director for Rod and Custom magazine, and began a long and varied art career producing logos, advertising, and industrial design, while still working on building and modifying hot rods. He had long held an interest in motorcycles, as an outlier in the archive, and the oldest piece, a heavily annotated 1949 Carrell Speedway Motorcycle Races program,attests, but didn't begin racing and modifying motorcycles in earnest until the early 1960s. By the mid 1960s he was a steady contender, consistently finishing in the top ten in motorcycle desert races. In the late 1960s he began the advertising agency Delta Associates, which largely catered to the rapidly expanding off-road motorcycle culture. Wineland has been credited with coining the terms "mini-bike" and "go-kart."

The bulk of materials in the archive are from Wineland's work with boutique off-road motorcycle makers, frame builders, and performance accessory and parts manufacturers and distributors (many represented in a Delta Associates presentation portfolio, circa mid 1970s, included in the archive), but also includes a wealth of personal artifacts (a 1965 California DMV Registration form for the purchase of a Triumph motorcycle) and earlier work, including a sketchbook, circa mid 1950s, of sports car drawings, with a large scribble drawing on the back of the pad which spells out, "This book belongs to Lynn Wineland that famous industrial designer and all round good fellow!," and the aforementioned heavily annotated Carrell Speedway Motorcycle Races program from 1949. An impressive piece from 1965 is a seemingly actual size ink and watercolor illustration of a cutaway Ceriani "moto cross fork," dated "12-65," signed with Wineland's iconic "W" (which would become Delta Associates' logo), clearly displaying Wineland's knowledge of the equipment and his mastery of the medium. Other pieces reveal initial concept mockups and rough sketches through development to the final product of various ad campaigns and publications. Also in the archive is a large color photograph of Wineland, circa mid 1970s, on a motorcycle in the desert, testing an unusual prototype of a helmet mounted with dual cameras, for which we have two small diagram sketches proposing the construction and settings of the helmet cameras. The archive amassed clearly displays Wineland's proficiency, both technical and creative, with nearly everything relating to motorcycles, off-road motorcycling in particular. Wineland's clients in the archive include AD&E Distributing Co., Advance Cycle Engineering, Al Baker Racing and Development, American Jawa LTD, Arnaco, Barnt, Ceriani, Colgan Auto Marine Aircraft, Cycle Accessories, Cycle Trends, Elsinore Paracenter, Gemini, General Motorcycle Engineering (GME), Go Kart, Monotrack Engineering, Pacer Consolidated, Simichrome, Steen's, Tabloc, and Target Motorsports.

The collection of catalogs, brochures, magazines, manuals, specification sheets, and promotional materials include AJS, Benelli, Gemini, Honda, Johnson Motors, Karter News, Kawasaki, Kyffin, Monarch-Crescent (MCB), Motor Cycling News, Murphy Muffler, MZ, Nation's Cycle Center, North American Imports, Norton, Puch, Roto-Faze, Sprite, Steen's, Tabloc, White, and Yamaha, dating from the early 1960s through to the late 1970s.

An impressive and remarkable representation of Southern California's off-road motorcycle scene.

Archive pieces vary in size, the largest being 20.75 x 14 inches, with most materials in Fine or Near Fine condition.


[Book #154461]