‘That’s totally an iPhone, no cap’: 1937 painting sparks wild time travel claims

A nearly 90-year-old painting has once again sent the internet into a frenzy, with social media users joking — and some seriously speculating — that it contains evidence of time travel.

The object at the centre of the debate appears in Umberto Romano’s 1937 mural, “Mr. Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield.” In one section of the artwork, an Indigenous man is shown holding a small, dark rectangular object close to his face. His posture looks strikingly similar to the way people today hold and stare at smartphones.

That resemblance has prompted comments along the lines of, “That’s totally an iPhone, no cap.” Others have jokingly suggested that the man may have travelled back from the future with a smartphone in hand. The theory has resurfaced online in September 2026, with the painting once again attracting viral attention.

What does the 1937 painting actually show?

Romano’s mural depicts the early history of Springfield, Massachusetts, and centres on English colonist William Pynchon. The scene is set around the 17th-century encounter between Indigenous communities and English settlers.

The mural was completed in 1937 as part of a series of New Deal-era murals commissioned for the Springfield post office under the Federal Arts Project. The building is now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Office Building. The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum identifies the work as Mr. Pynchon and the Settling of Springfield.

The smartphone-like object appears in the lower portion of the mural, where an Indigenous figure seems intensely focused on the rectangular item.

Is it really an iPhone?

Almost certainly not.

The iPhone did not exist until 2007, while the first handheld mobile-phone call was made in 1973. The object in Romano's mural therefore cannot literally be an iPhone based on the historical record.

The most widely discussed explanation is that the object is actually a hand mirror.

Historians have pointed out that mirrors were known trade goods during the colonial period. The man's pose also fits the possibility that he is examining his own reflection rather than scrolling through a phone.

Earlier analysis of the mural has produced other possibilities as well. Anthropologist Margaret Bruchac suggested that the object could potentially represent an iron blade, while historian Daniel Crown discussed the possibility of a mirror or even a small religious book. The mural's semi-abstract style makes the precise identification difficult.

Why does it look so much like a smartphone?

The fascination largely comes from modern viewers projecting a familiar object and gesture onto an old artwork.

The rectangular shape, the way the man's fingers appear positioned around it and his concentrated gaze are remarkably similar to the posture of someone checking a smartphone. That visual similarity is enough to make the image look bizarrely modern when viewed without its historical context.

But there is no credible evidence that Romano was depicting futuristic technology or that the painting provides evidence of time travel.

The Smithsonian's description also notes that Romano used a semi-abstract style, with distorted proportions and a complex composition rather than attempting a strictly realistic historical reconstruction.

Internet theory vs historical explanation

The viral theory is certainly entertaining: a person from the future supposedly travelled to 17th-century Massachusetts and somehow ended up immortalised in a 1937 mural while carrying a device resembling an iPhone.

The historical explanation is considerably less dramatic.

A mirror or another European trade object would fit the period far better than a smartphone. Experts have previously rejected the time-travel interpretation, and there is no scientific evidence linking the painting to time travel.

So, while the figure may look uncannily like someone checking an iPhone, the mysterious object is best understood as an example of how old art can look surprisingly modern to contemporary eyes.

For now, the supposed 1937 “iPhone” remains a fascinating internet mystery — but not evidence that someone beat the laws of time.