Smithsonian gets collection of early mobiles
May 5, 2003 | 12:00am
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently received a collection of early cellphones and other wireless technology devices dating to the early 1970s.
Daniel Henderson, inventor and co-founder of PhoneTel Communications, donated the collection of 83 objects, manuals and packaging to the museum.
Objects in the collection include the Casio Z7000 "zoomer," the immediate predecessor to the Palm Pilot and the Atari Portfolio, the world’s first palm-top computer.
Henderson’s collection documents the major innovations in the development of wireless communications and computing technologies.
"Wireless devices like the ones we are collecting have had a broad social impact in America," said David Allison, chairman 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. The wireless revolution that these devices represent has changed the way society communicates," Allison added. "This collection will be an important resource to anthropologists, sociologists and historians of today and tomorrow."
Henderson, of Fort Worth, Texas, holds several patents in telephony and communications, some of them related to the history of cellular phones and handheld computers.
The collection also includes a paging digital assistant prototype developed by Henderson and patented in the early 1990s. The Henderson prototype is a pager that also served as an electronic address book that could exchange information with a personal computer and receive Caller ID from the telephone network.
The National Museum of American History traces American heritage through cultural, scientific and technological exhibitions. The museum is located at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. Visit its website at http://americanhistory.si.edu.
Daniel Henderson, inventor and co-founder of PhoneTel Communications, donated the collection of 83 objects, manuals and packaging to the museum.
Objects in the collection include the Casio Z7000 "zoomer," the immediate predecessor to the Palm Pilot and the Atari Portfolio, the world’s first palm-top computer.
Henderson’s collection documents the major innovations in the development of wireless communications and computing technologies.
"Wireless devices like the ones we are collecting have had a broad social impact in America," said David Allison, chairman 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. The wireless revolution that these devices represent has changed the way society communicates," Allison added. "This collection will be an important resource to anthropologists, sociologists and historians of today and tomorrow."
Henderson, of Fort Worth, Texas, holds several patents in telephony and communications, some of them related to the history of cellular phones and handheld computers.
The collection also includes a paging digital assistant prototype developed by Henderson and patented in the early 1990s. The Henderson prototype is a pager that also served as an electronic address book that could exchange information with a personal computer and receive Caller ID from the telephone network.
The National Museum of American History traces American heritage through cultural, scientific and technological exhibitions. The museum is located at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W. Visit its website at http://americanhistory.si.edu.
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