Distress messages from the sinking Titanic are among items going on display at a radio and television exhibition in Oxford.

The messages will be on show alongside the receiver used by radio pioneer Marconi in 1901 to receive the first ever transatlantic wireless transmission.

The Wireless World exhibition, opening on April 24 at the Museum of the History of Science, in Broad Street, features material from the collection of the Marconi wireless telegraph company.

The exhibition, which runs until October 1, is being held to mark the acquisition by the museum and the Bodleian Library of the extraordinary Marconi Collection.

Museum spokesman Dr Jim Bennett said: "The exhibition covers the history of radio from Marconi's early demonstrations in the 1890s to the beginning of regular public broadcasting in the 1920s.

"This is the story of a technology that has shaped the modern world." The display concentrates on the dramatic and memorable events including: Marconi's celebrated early demonstrations, including cross-Channel signals The achievement of a trans-Atlantic signal in December 1901 The Titanic disaster and the use of radio to rescue the survivors The development of radio in World War One The birth of broadcasting, up to the foundation of the BBC.

These are illustrated by original instruments and documents, including: Apparatus from Marconi's very first demonstrations, including the trans-Atlantic signal Famous original experimental notebooks and patents Marconigram' messages sent from the Titanic and between ships in the vicinity after the fatal collision Early radios and broadcast equipment, including the microphone used in Dame Nellie Melba's celebrated recital on June 15, 1920, the first live public entertainment broadcast.

The exhibition will be opened on April 24 at 6.30 pm by Lord Patten, Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

In 2004, the collection was presented to the Oxford University by the Marconi Corporation.

The large and unrivalled archive of objects and documents records the work of Guglielmo Marconi and the wireless telegraph company he founded.

The documents are kept in the Bodleian Library and the objects in the Museum of the History of Science.

This exhibition of material from the collection presents the first decades of the history of radio, from Marconi's pioneering experiments and demonstrations at the end of the 19th century to the beginning of public radio broadcasting in the 1920s.