A nearly 90-year-old artwork has found new life online, where viewers are once again debating whether it contains proof that time travel exists.
The 1937 painting, titled ‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield,’ has drawn attention because some claim it appears to show an Indigenous man in the 17th century holding what looks like a smartphone while posing for a selfie.
In the foreground of the scene, the figure is shown gripping the lower portion of a dark rectangular object with what appears to be white or silver edging, while looking down toward its upper half in a way that resembles someone checking a modern mobile phone.
Because such an object would not have existed in either the 1600s setting or the 1930s era in which the painting was created, the unusual detail has fueled years of speculation that the artist may have hidden a clue pointing to time travel.
The image has prompted plenty of incredulous reactions online, with one person commenting: ‘Now that one actually looks like a cell phone.’ Another viewer simply asked: ‘Is that an iPhone?’
Experts, however, have offered a far more grounded explanation. While enthusiasts continue to argue over the mysterious item, historians generally believe the object is likely a mirror, possibly acquired by the Indigenous man through trade with English colonist William Pynchon.
The painting is part of a broader group of old paintings, sculptures and photographs that have gone viral because viewers believe they show items seemingly created long before their time.
The renewed interest also comes amid a wider fascination with time travel claims, including viral interviews in which several people have asserted, without evidence, that they are visitors from the future and that time travel could become widespread as early as 2028.
A painting from 1937 has drawn the attention of conspiracy theorists, who claim an Indigenous man in Massachusetts in the 1600s was painted 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.
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 Waldmüller 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.
