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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1934

  • Work on this object began.

2016

2017

2025

  • You found it!

Mural Detail, The World of Radio

This is a Mural detail. It was made for Jessica Dragonette. It is dated 1934. Its medium is cotton and its technique is wax resist dyeing (batik) on plain weave.

In 1920, the Westinghouse Electric Company set up the first radio transmitting station to regularly broadcast scheduled programming from a rooftop shack above its Pittsburgh manufacturing facility—the small building on the left. On November 2, 1920, this station, KDKA, made the nation’s first radio broadcast of the results of a U.S. Presidential election, announcing the victory of Warren G. Harding over James M. Cox.
To the right is the original 500-watt WJZ transmitter that Westinghouse installed in Newark, New Jersey in 1921.

It is credited Gift of Nicholas Meredith Turner in memory of Jessica Dragonette.

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The World of Radio.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/1108721975/ |title=Mural Detail, The World of Radio |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=5 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>