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People are convinced this man in 1936 New York photo has come from the future
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An archive image from the Brooklyn Museum Collection has drawn attention after a man was seen holding something up to his ear.
The 1936 photo was taken in New York City, and it has resurfaced 90 years later for one detail.
It's not the hustle and bustle of a post-WWI Big Apple, but instead one of the men who was captured in the black-and-white picture.
There's a man who's been spotted holding an object near his ear, as people can be seen travelling through Union Square in the background.
He's close enough to the camera that he appears out of focus, but the suggestion of him holding a cell phone seems outrageous.
The object has raised questions, especially given that it would be decades before cell phones were introduced to the public.
Theories from social media users
The man has his back to the camera, almost covering the object in its entirety, so questions have flown in from all angles.
Someone took to social media, asking: "Is that a time traveler on his phone right up front with his back to us?"
Another suggested: "Looks like the guy in the middle up front is on his cell phone... hmm, time travel?"
"Love the guy in the vest on his cell phone," a third posted, as a different user said: "Pretty sure that's Marty McFly," in reference to the time-traveling Back to the Future character.
This isn't the first mystery man spotted in archival photographs who has been suggested to be a time traveler, but it still seems outlandish.
The fact is that the first commercially available handheld cellphone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, only hit shelves in 1983.
But some suggested that he wasn't holding a phone, but a shortwave radio receiver, which was invented in the 1920s.
One skeptic wrote on X: "Guy scratches ear 83 years later gets accused of being a time traveler."
"Unless there were 'secret' cell phone towers, a cell phone would be useless back then," someone else wrote.
Others theorized that the man was a spy for the Axis powers, years before World War II broke out.
The truth behind the image
All we know is that Berenice Abbott was the woman behind the camera who took the snap of Union Square in Manhattan on July 16, 1936.
She used the image as part of her popular Changing New York documentary project for the Federal Art Project.
The photo is simply named 'Union Square, 14th Street and Broadway', and it is remembered for capturing the busy, bustling nature of the area.
It is even more iconic given that it was taken during the Great Depression - the image is still on display, as part of the Brooklyn Museum collection.