The Science Museum presents technology stories from around the world in its galleries and exhibitions. However, the practicalities of collecting 3D material for displays often mean that collections are very UK centric. When the gallery team for the Museum’s forthcoming Making Modern Communications gallery began development they knew that there would be some active collection of artefacts required for the more contemporary technologies, such as mobile phones. A very deliberate decision was made to include international perspectives, and after much deliberation Cameroon was selected as a case study. In order to tackle the problem of our UK heavy collection, plans were hatched for a collecting project including a field trip to Cameroon.

This paper will discuss the processes we went through to identify the objects we wanted to collect, and the practicalities of acquiring them and getting them back to the UK. Contemporary collecting is always a challenge as curators try to second guess what will in the future be regarded as important developments in the history of technology. Collecting in a foreign country to try and gather artefacts that are representative of that culture presents an even greater challenge. We drew on a range of people and organisations with expert knowledge to help us make our decisions, and had a well-defined ‘wish list’ of objects to collect by the time we travelled to Cameroon.

The Cameroonian case study represents the ‘depth’ in our museum display, but we also wanted to represent the ‘breadth’ of mobile communications around the world. This paper will finish by briefly describing some of the other international stories about mobile technology, and how we decided what would eventually be included in the display. One of the responsibilities for any curator undertaking contemporary collecting is to understand that in selecting what to collect and what not to collect, they are shaping the historical record for researchers of the future. This is perhaps more true now than ever before, as our material culture becomes increasingly intangible and disposable.