James Wilson (motorcyclist)

James C. Wilson (October 8, 1900 – January 31, 1995)^[1]^[2] was a long-distance motorcyclist and author of the autobiography Three-Wheeling Through Africa.^[3] His five-month 1927 journey from Nigeria to Eritrea on a Triumph sidecar with Francis Flood may have been the first motorized crossing of Africa by motorcycle.^[4]

After a United States tour in the late 1930s promoting his travels and book, Wilson resided in Polk, Nebraska where he was a corn farmer.^[1]

Photographs he published in National Geographic were used in a 21st century MIT anthropology course.^[5]

Bibliography[edit]

Wilson, James Calmar (1936). Three-wheeling Through Africa (first ed.). Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company. ASIN B000856L32.

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Radel 2001.
^ James C Wilson gravestone
^ New York Times 1936.
^ Overland Magazine 2017.
^ MIT 2008.

Sources[edit]

Percy Hutchison (October 11, 1936), "In Africa; Three-Wheeling Through Africa", The New York Times
""Photography and Truth" currculum" (PDF), 21A.348 / CMS.835 Photography and Truth OpenCourseWare, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Spring 2008
History of Overlanding – Up to the end of 1920s, Overland Magazine, December 17, 2017, the first trans-African motorcycle journey we've heard of
Radel, Cliff (January 17, 2001), "Journal of a journey – African trip inspires effort", Cincinnati Enquirer, p. B.1

[FOOTNOTERadel2001-1] Radel 2001.

[2] James C Wilson gravestone

[FOOTNOTENew_York_Times1936-3] New York Times 1936.

[FOOTNOTEOverland_Magazine2017-4] Overland Magazine 2017.

[FOOTNOTEMIT2008-5] MIT 2008.

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