We are fortunate to have a post with pictures here of the Walter Hartmann collection. In my first decade of collecting back in the 1980's I began to hear about this fabulous collection which was out in California. I have never seen pictures of helmets from it in all my subsequent years of collecting. We are fortunate that Steve Mc who actually met Hartmann was given a series of pictures which he just recently found again. Here is some background information (email) from Steve:
I think it will be great
I don't know if you have or ever seen the old Col. Rankin book on spiked helmets
but some of Walt's helmets were shown in that book
as I have said before I got my first helmet about 1970
Hartmann already had this well advanced collection
The reason you have never seen photos
is that he was a policeman and did not trust anyone .
Very few people ever got to see his collection
I was lucky because early in the game
I made friends with Dave Powers in Laguna Beach
Dave drove me over to meet Hartmann and see his collection
also I was fiends with Jarl Hartze of Stockholm , Sweden
so was another "intro " that I got
Hartmann came to my place some years ago with a camera
and lots of equipment . He took photo after photo with back drops
and the whole works
He was going to do a book on helmets , but it never got done
I gave him a place to stay here , let him ride with us to Cincy
to the old OVMS show at the Drawbridge Inn
then he rode back here
next day hopped a bus and went to Chicago to shoot
I saw Hartmann's collection 2 times
and he gave me the photos I am sending out
Walt took the photos, that's the story.
So here are the initial photos from the HArtmann collection that Steve emailed to me recently:
I think it will be great
I don't know if you have or ever seen the old Col. Rankin book on spiked helmets
but some of Walt's helmets were shown in that book
as I have said before I got my first helmet about 1970
Hartmann already had this well advanced collection
The reason you have never seen photos
is that he was a policeman and did not trust anyone .
Very few people ever got to see his collection
I was lucky because early in the game
I made friends with Dave Powers in Laguna Beach
Dave drove me over to meet Hartmann and see his collection
also I was fiends with Jarl Hartze of Stockholm , Sweden
so was another "intro " that I got
Hartmann came to my place some years ago with a camera
and lots of equipment . He took photo after photo with back drops
and the whole works
He was going to do a book on helmets , but it never got done
I gave him a place to stay here , let him ride with us to Cincy
to the old OVMS show at the Drawbridge Inn
then he rode back here
next day hopped a bus and went to Chicago to shoot
I saw Hartmann's collection 2 times
and he gave me the photos I am sending out
Walt took the photos, that's the story.
So here are the initial photos from the HArtmann collection that Steve emailed to me recently: