The Guglielmo Marconi Memorial is a public artwork by Attilio Piccirilli, located at the intersection of 16th and Lamont Streets NW in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

While still a young man, Marconi began his work in studying telegraphy and developing radio wave technology.

[2] Continuing his work with telegraphy and radio waves, in 1895, Marconi could send a message within a 1-mile (1.6 km) radius.

The following year Marconi was introduced to British post office engineer, Henry Jameson Davis.

Within the next few years, Marconi secured a patent for his invention and equipped a number of American ships with his wireless telegraph.

He also founded the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company and opened a fabricating warehouse in Chelmsford, England.

[2][3] In the 1900s, Marconi quickly found success with the wireless telegraphs, installing them in cruise ships, and in 1909, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Karl Ferdinand Braun.

On September 28, 1937, U.S. Representative Kent E. Keller asked the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) for their approval of a proposed memorial.

Within a couple of weeks, the CFA approved the plan and suggested the memorial be erected in a prominent location.

[3] One of the earliest fundraisers took place at the Raleigh Hotel and featured opera stars singing in Italian, English, and Spanish.

[11][12] After they had inspected the memorial, a MMF dinner attended by 150 guests took place at the Mayflower Hotel in July 1941.

Representatives Adolph J. Sabath and Samuel Dickstein, and Judge John J. Freschl, the MMF's vice president.

Due to the ongoing World War II and Italy being one of the Axis powers, the dinner included speeches on uniting American citizens in a possible conflict.