A nearly century-old painting has gone viral again, reigniting online claims that it may contain evidence of time travel.
The 1937 artwork, titled ‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield,’ appears to show an Indigenous man from the 17th century holding what some viewers insist looks strikingly like a smartphone as if he is posing for a selfie.
In the foreground of the painting, the figure is seen gripping the lower portion of a dark rectangular object with a pale or metallic-looking edge, while staring toward its upper section in a way that modern audiences associate with using a phone.
Because such a device would have been impossible in both the colonial-era scene depicted and the 1930s period in which the painting was created, the unusual detail has fueled years of speculation that the artist may have hidden a time-travel clue in the well-known work.
Reacting to the image online, one person wrote: ‘Now that one actually looks like a cell phone.’ Another viewer wondered: ‘Is that an iPhone?’
While believers and skeptics have clashed over what the item could be, historians have leaned towards the handheld device actually being a mirror, which the Indigenous man would have obtained in a trade with English colonist William Pynchon.
The 1937 work is one of several paintings, sculptures and photographs which have allegedly captured an object which was centuries ahead of its time.
Moreover, multiple individuals have given viral interviews where they claimed without evidence that they were not only time travelers from the future, but that widespread use of time travel would begin as soon as 2028.
A painting from 1937 has drawn the attention of conspiracy theorists, who claim an Indigenous man in Massachusetts in the 1600s was depicted holding a smartphone
Footage from Elvis Presley’s final concert has resurfaced online and appears to show someone carrying a device which conspiracy theorists claim is a smartphone
The controversial mural by Italian-born artist Umberto Romano is said to be one of six New Deal-era murals showing the history of Springfield, Massachusetts – where Romano grew up.
This particular image depicted Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, trading with natives, likely from the Pocumtuc tribe in western Massachusetts around the 1630s, when the settlement was established.
Unlike the other individuals in the painting, including two men appearing to be punished by being whipped and placed in the wooden stocks, no one else was seen holding anything that looked like it came from the future.
That included depictions of Pynchon’s group trading goods and animals with the Native Americans.
MORE STORY: Richard Branson’s Wife Joan Could Have Been Saved, New Claims Suggest
This has led historians, including Daniel Crown in 2017, to call the mysterious item a painting of a European trade mirror.
Mirrors were common trade goods in that era. The man’s pose – holding up the object and looking at it – matches someone examining their own reflection, possibly for the first time using a polished mirror.
Despite heavy skepticism that the painting was only showing a mirror, ‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield’ adds to a growing theory that ancient art has been documenting incidents in which time travelers have visited the past.
A similar painting from the 19th century called The Expected One by Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller depicted a woman walking along a path while looking down at an unknown object she was clutching with both hands.
Join the discussion
Smartphone, mirror or something else? Tell us what you think the mysterious object in the painting really is.
Historians have said the man holding the alleged smartphone was actually holding a mirror he just traded for with English settlers
Other paintings allegedly depicted individuals holding objects in the same way present-day people look at and hold smartphones
Although the small, square device could have been a book, conspiracy theorists noted that the woman in the painting looked exactly like how present-day individuals walk while distracted by their smartphones.
Even a sculpture from 100 BC has been repeatedly claimed to be evidence of time travel. Called Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant, the ancient Greek statue allegedly includes a laptop, complete with two USB ports.
At the same time as Romano’s painting has resurfaced, viral interviews online have allegedly documented the confessions of ‘time travelers’ who said the US government already had the ability to travel to the past or the future.
In one recording by a masked man who identified himself as Alexander Smith, the self-proclaimed time traveler said he was a former member of the CIA from 1981 who was recruited to journey to the year 2118.
Smith also claimed that time travel technology had existed for decades before the public knew about it and predicted it would become available ‘beginning in the year 2028’ for both commercial and non-commercial uses.
He further alleged that 2028 is also ‘the same year in which the government discloses the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials,’ claiming authorities had possessed knowledge of aliens ‘for some time previous’ to the announcement.