Media of Our Time – A History of Radio and Television

Crossing the threshold of the exhibition “Media of Our Time – A History of Radio and Television” takes you on a journey into the past. Almost literally, as you will see commercial and residential interiors from the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1990s. What technical novelties filled the shop shelves? What place did radio and television occupy in homes? We will see how, over almost a century, the design of consumer equipment in radio and telecommunication technology evolved. We will get to know the legendary transmitters of Radio “Solidarność” and their role in sustaining the spirit of social resistance in the years 1981–1989, which gave rise to today's truly democratic Poland.

James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz, Nikola Tesla – they laid the theoretical and experimental foundations of radio and television. The second half of the nineteenth century was rich in discoveries and gave birth to inventions of unprecedented impact in human history. The ability to communicate by radio waves, instantly and over vast distances, had no equal. Humanity acquired a new way of fulfilling its most important social need – the exchange of thoughts, impressions and emotions. Radio and television profoundly influence our culture and civilization. It was so in the past, and nothing suggests the future will push them into the shadows. We still want to hear and to be heard. We still want to observe and to be noticed. That will not change – though everything else surely will.

Crossing the threshold of the exhibition “Media of Our Time – A History of Radio and Television” takes you on a journey into the past. Almost literally, as you will see commercial and residential interiors from the 1930s, 1950s, 1970s and 1990s. What technical novelties filled the shop shelves? What place did radio and television occupy in homes? We will see how, over almost a century, the design of consumer equipment in radio and telecommunication technology evolved. We will get to know the legendary transmitters of Radio “Solidarność” and their role in sustaining the spirit of social resistance in the years 1981–1989, which gave rise to today's truly democratic Poland.

The exhibitions were financed from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, under grant agreement no. 2/NMT/DCI/2024 (project titled Construction of two permanent exhibitions under working titles: “Media of Our World – A History of Radio and Television” and “Nature, the Greatest Inventor”) in the amount of PLN 2,360,080.00.