1930’s Painting Appears to Show Native American man Checking his iPhone

‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield’ (Picture: United States Postal Service)

Is this painting evidence of time travel?

An 80-year-old painting appearing to show a Native American man using an iPhone has taken the internet by storm.

The painting, ‘Mr Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield’, was committed to canvas in 1937 by Italian painter Umberto Romano.

The artwork shows the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts, William Pynchon, surrounded by Native Americans after arriving in what is now referred to as America. The event happened around the year 1630 nearly 400 years before the arrival of the “smart phone.”

But if you look very closely at the painting which has not been doctored, you’ll spot a Native american man holding what appears to be a iPhone.

Is he taking a selfie or checking out his Facebook? Probably not, because this is impossible of course; it was before electricity was invented, let alone cell-phone signals but the painting has sparked time-travelling conspiracy theories by those in search for proof of time travel.

There is a great deal of speculation online about what the device could be in the painting, and some people have said that it might be a case of time travel.

Although it looks like a member of a tribe was checking his iPhone, the general consensus is it’s probably a hand-held mirror.

For Native Americans, mirrors were symbols of wealth and prestige.

According to an article by Motherboard.vice.com, ― who spotted the anomaly ― when Europeans introduced such reflective devices to Indigenous peoples in the 1600s, many Native nations incorporated [mirrors] into tribal fashion and design.

Expert Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa in North Dakota, wrote a 2011 blog post about the history of mirrors in Indigenous culture.