The World of Radio, a batik mural dedicated to the professional career of soprano and radio star Jessica Dragonette (American, 1900–1980), is the inspiration for the display of radios, drawings, and photographs in this gallery. Spanning more than eight decades, these objects serve as a timeline of radio's development and refinement as a tool for communication and entertainment. Capping this display is the 1934 mural that celebrates Jessica Dragonette's contributions as a radio personality and includes vignettes of important milestones in radio and broadcasting history. These are illuminated against a backdrop of familiar symbols of technological advancement in the modern age.
Many recognized radio's potential to facilitate long-distance communication, connect people to information, and provide entertainment. Though Guglielmo Marconi (Italian, 1874–1937) first patented his wireless telegraph system in 1896, it was decades before national radio networks emerged in the United States. When Dragonette began performing on the air for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1927, the network wasn't even a year old. The U.S. government encouraged cooperation among broadcasting, communication, and technology companies, chiefly AT&T, General Electric, Westinghouse, and Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The government support was the key to the formation of national radio networks.
At around the same time, radios powered by household electrical outlets replaced those with the leaky batteries found in hobbyists garages and sheds. Radio's domestication was complete as the newest models easily harmonized with household furnishings and made listening a shared family experience. Later developments included the transistor radio in the 1950s, which replaced vacuum tubes with transistors and made radios small and portable, revolutionizing how we listen to music. Further miniaturization of components impacted the aesthetic qualities of radios while innovations such as satellite and Internet-only radio stations, apps that stream customizable music playlists, and radio programs made available as podcasts changed how we access news and entertainment. Today, radio remains relevant by expanding options that allow us to appreciate an ever-wider array of programming.
Lescaze’s projects for Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in the 1930s and 40s helped codify the company’s public identity through graphic and architectural decisions. Here Lescaze illustrates his proposal for the renovation of a midtown theater into a modern recording and performance space for CBS that would be conducive to recording while establishing a corporate identity.
Industrial designer Jensen’s prolific career encompassed successful patents and designs ranging from radio cabinets, like the one in the photograph, to typefaces. The striking compositions and interplay of shadows and light in these two photographs of Jensen’s designs herald modern design aesthetics and aspirations, as well as highlight the development of radio technology.
Industrial designer Jensen’s prolific career encompassed successful patents and designs ranging from radio cabinets, like the one in the photograph, to typefaces. The striking compositions and interplay of shadows and light in these two photographs of Jensen’s designs herald modern design aesthetics and aspirations, as well as highlight the development of radio technology.
graphite, blue pencil on tracing paper, ruled border in graphite
Gift of Donald Deskey
cabinets
furniture design
domestic interior
Industrial designer Donald Deskey’s 1930s furniture designs unite form and function. Inspired by the simple sophistication of contemporary Scandinavian wooden furniture, this radio cabinet’s rectilinear shape, curved edge, and horizontal pulls allow the beauty of its materials to add interest and ornamentation. With folding doors and a sliding top, the versatile cabinet allows for easy storage and demonstrates the integration of radio technology in the furnishings of a modern home.
The Tischsuper RT 20 bridges the gap between early domestic audio "furniture" and the more technical aesthetic of the late twentieth century. Its rectilinear shape is emphasized by the vertical dial and the horizontal speaker slits, and its face is punctuated by minimalist knobs and gently scooped buttons that invite the user’s touch.
Before radios were standard fixtures in automobile dashboards, Clairtone marketed Braun’s T 52 to the growing number of North American drivers. The versatile device served as both a tabletop and car radio: it could be propped up by its carrying handle when stationary or locked into an optional car mount when on-the-go.
These Volksempfängers, or "people’s receivers," are evidence of Hitler’s technological manipulation. Developed at the request of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and designed to be cheaply produced, these Bakelite-encased receivers made radio technology widely available. With tuners indicating only German and Austrian stations that broadcast Nazi propaganda, these devices played a central role in Hitler’s regime.
These Volksempfängers, or "people’s receivers," are evidence of Hitler’s technological manipulation. Developed at the request of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and designed to be cheaply produced, these Bakelite-encased receivers made radio technology widely available. With tuners indicating only German and Austrian stations that broadcast Nazi propaganda, these devices played a central role in Hitler’s regime.
This cabinet design encases a phonograph, radio, and speakers, illustrating the centrality of radios to modern American homes. The high gloss of black lacquer and bold grain of Macassar ebony distinguish its simple forms. Deskey often used these contrasting materials, notably in a multipurpose cabinet for the "Room of the Future" at Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress exhibition.
Though Deskey’s radio cabinets typically hide household phonographs behind doors, this console table features the radio as decoration. An admirer of Bauhaus metal furniture, Deskey was one of the first Americans to design a line of chromium-plated steel furniture. The tubular steel echoes the radio’s material, creating a seamless chrome design highlighting new technologies.
Japanese manufacturer TACT Denki marketed its TPR-61 phonoradio as the world’s smallest phonograph. The battery-powered device played both 33 and 45 RPM records and could also tune in to radio broadcasts. The bright, portable machine was especially popular among teenage listeners, an increasingly important demographic in the postwar period.
blue, black pastel, brush and watercolor, gouache, graphite on vellum
Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. Griffith Bailey Coale and from Eleanor G. Hewitt Fund
time
radios
technology
presentation drawing
Arbib, who began his career styling cars for General Motors, made designs for clock radios that apply the flamboyant features of 1950s automobiles. Flaring side fins and a flashy dial approximate the look of an automotive dashboard and demonstrate how companies like General Electric eagerly added new features to radios to entice consumers.
pastel, brush and gouache, pen and black ink, graphite on green paper
Museum purchase through the gift of Mrs. Edward C. Post
industrial design
portable
futuristic
While large phonograph cabinets concealed family radios, portable radios were light and flashy, attracting younger consumers eager to listen to expanded radio programming outside of the home. This design embraces futuristic and colorful style. Crosley’s radio designs favored bold colors, and this unusual cylindrical shape distinguished this portable radio from those of other low-cost competitors.
pastel, some stencilled, brush and white gouache, on tracing paper
Museum purchase through the gift of Mrs. Edward C. Post
industrial design
radios
presentation drawing
The streamlined body and chrome dials of this radio show how industrial designers borrowed aspects of transportation vehicles to design futuristic-looking household products. Many presentation drawings are difficult to match to actual production units, as designs often changed in response to client wishes and production costs. This drawing very closely matches Crosley’s radio model 10-135, possibly suggesting that the designer made it for his portfolio after the radio’s production to make it appear as though he had greater influence on final production when meeting with future clients.
Bach’s presentation drawing of a radio design for Philco attracts the eye to the shining white details of the dial, speaker grill, and knobs, suggesting chrome accents. Using assembly-line manufacturing techniques, Philco made a modified version of this design in plastic; the company’s reputation for durability as well as this portable radio’s modern style attracted consumers.
These Crosley radios are evidence of automobile styling’s influence on industrial design in postwar America. Here tuners and dials take inspiration from gleaming hubcaps, speakers stand in for automobile grilles, and the overall program recalls car headlights gently swelling out of their sleek and dynamic casing.
These Crosley radios are evidence of automobile styling’s influence on industrial design in postwar America. Here tuners and dials take inspiration from gleaming hubcaps, speakers stand in for automobile grilles, and the overall program recalls car headlights gently swelling out of their sleek and dynamic casing.
graphite, brown, white, yellow color pencil on tracing paper
Gift of John Bruce
radios
cabinets
furniture design
domestic interior
This drawing, dated and marked with the Dreyfuss office stamp "Rough Sketch," is one of many designs completed by Dreyfuss’s office for RCA. Presenting the radio within a paneled wooden cabinet on four tapered legs suggests an attention to the decorative trends of mid-century furnishing and indicates the radio’s intended use in a domestic setting.
The soft angles and highly polished surface evident in Mirza’s drawing of this rectangular radio demonstrate the application of streamlined design principles to industrial products. The sleek contours, emphasized through horizontal lines of shading on the top and face of the radio, brim with latent energy not unlike contemporaneous designs for cars and trains.
Dreyfuss once observed that three million listeners tuned in to the NBC Symphony radio broadcast each week, concluding that, "The American people will listen to good music, if given the chance." The Sunburst’s straightforward, easy-to-use design presented that chance, expressing Dreyfuss’s life-long mission to elevate and democratize taste through well-designed, commercially accessible consumer goods.
In 1991 Baylis recognized the need for a way to communicate information to communities across Africa without access to electricity, batteries, or conventional radios. His solution was a hand-powered, wind-up radio. The Freeplay Radio evinces the importance of communication and design in a world where information empowers people to improve their lives and protect themselves.
brush and dark brown ink, brown and white gouache, graphite, black crayon on tan paper
Gift of Alfons and Anita S. Bach
radios
presentation drawing
domestic interior
Streamlined designs were often realized in metallic chromes and shiny plastics, but this design renders a futuristically styled radio cabinet in steam-bent wood. Bach’s designs for home products and furnishings often repurposed elements to suit other products: the grill-like form concealing the radio’s speakers also appears in Bach’s designs for cylindrical containers and a scale.
Starck and Olivet’s Moosk radio is heir to the trend toward biomorphic shapes that countered the rectilinear angularity typical of much of late-twentieth-century consumer electronics design. The abstracted face-like form emits sound from a perforated mouth, and the station display takes the form of a tiny "eye" at top.
One of Crasset’s earliest works, the Sound Station takes its formal inspiration from the Golden Age of Radio with a speaker that recalls early gramophone horns. Here the designer has reduced the radio to a "functional and symbolic minimum" whose iconic, conical shape visually embodies the essential idea of sound.
This arc-shaped radio speaks to a 1980s design aesthetic that embraced geometric forms and sleek textured plastics, particularly in the burgeoning consumer electronics industry. Despite the radio’s high-tech appearance, the spherical AM/FM tuner is a completely analog interface, both obscuring and connecting users physically to the device’s inner workings.
Apple introduced the iPod, an all-white, personal music-player, in 2001, showcasing their now-iconic minimalist aesthetic. By 2009, the firm’s smaller iPod Nano was available in vibrant metallic colors. This shift reflects a change in the market for personal technology devices—a change that allowed for a greater range of choice and personalization.
Like the earlier Freeplay Radio, also on display, the FR 600 was designed as an emergency tool; it is powered by solar energy or a hand-crank. Taking inspiration from rugged automobiles like the Hummer and Landrover, its built-in utilities include an LED flashlight, walkie-talkie, siren, SOS beacon, and a USB charger, providing an all-in-one resource.
molded plastic, stamped metal, stamped and pierced sheet metal, cord
Gift of Max Pine
personal
communication
music
minimalism
neutral colors
compact
innovative
Transistors revolutionized listening technology in the mid-twentieth century, replacing bulky vacuum tubes used in earlier radios and allowing for smaller devices that required less energy to power. One of Sony’s most successful products, the sleek, minimal TR-620 radio was small enough to fit into a purse or shirt pocket and came with a plug-in earpiece.
During the Great Depression, Air-King turned to Van Doren and Rideout, members of the emergent industrial design profession, to create a product for a highly competitive market. Their design was inspired by the skyscraper—one of the era’s great icons—and utilized compression-molded plastic, a cheaper and less labor-intensive alternative to traditional wooden housings.
For this advertisement for the Philips Miniwatt Type E444 diode-tetrode radio valve lamp, legendary graphic designer Cassandre used a rendering of the product as the focal point and created a striking typographic design, rendering the word "Miniwatt" in capital letters except for the two "i" characters. The design emphasizes the "mini" quality of the tube, which is rendered at a greater scale than life size.
Courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries 2000-42-1 ILV-018
architecture
interior design
art deco
radios
Bonney was a photojournalist and publicist living in Paris when she photographed the home of fashion designer Jacques Heim (French, 1899–1967). He chose to install his radio in the living room of his ultramodern Paris home. A large freestanding cone speaker and antenna rest on the cabinet containing the radio set.
Courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries 2000-42-1 ILM-012
architecture
interior design
art deco
radios
In this room, an oversized indoor loop radio antenna rests on the floor near the radio set. Early radios had bulky external components that many found unattractive—this may explain why the radio had a separate room in this fashionable Art Deco home of pianist Adèle Reifenberg.
Bayer’s brochure for General Electric promoted FM radio and other forthcoming technologies of its electronics division. On the cover, photo-montaged hands hold a vacuum tube—an early electronic component that vastly improved the detection and amplification of radio signals. Decades of iterations and improvements to this basic technology led to the development of television, computer, and radar systems.
