WASHINGTON-The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History received a collection of early cell phones and other wireless technology devices hailing from as long ago as the 1970s. Daniel Henderson, inventor and co-founder of PhoneTel Communications, donated the products.
“Wireless devices like the ones we are collecting have had a broad social impact in America,” said David Allison, chair of the museum’s Division of Information Technology and Society. “Wireless technologies have experienced an extraordinarily rapid rate of acceptance by the public, faster even than the introduction of the computer. This collection will be an important resource to anthropologists, sociologists and historians of today and tomorrow.”
