Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum is celebrating The World of Radio in an exhibit that is currently on view through September 24th. On display are radios designed by pioneering industrial designers, drawings of prototypes for radio consoles and cabinets, and a depression-era batik mural entitled The World of Radio, designed by Arthur Gordon Smith. The mural, which celebrates singer Jessica Dragonette – one of radio’s most popular personalities of the 1930s – is on view for the first time since 1978.
The World of Radio mural designed by Arthur Gordon Smith is 8 ft high, 16 ft wide
The mural, which is a focal point of the exhibit, was commissioned in 1933 by Jessica Dragonette’s sister, Nadea Dragonette Loftus, and adorned the singer’s top-floor apartment on East 57th Street.
The World of Radio will be on view at Cooper Hewitt, 2 East 91st Street, at Fifth Avenue through September 24, 2017.