Debunking the Strange Case of the ‘Time Traveling Hipster’

(Image: virtualmuseum.ca via Wikipedia; so-called ‘Modern Man’ at the 1941 bridge reopening)

You’ve probably seen the photo, which went viral some time ago thanks to websites like FARK and Above Top Secret. Proponents and conspiracy theorists hold it up as evidence that time travel is really possible, and that time travellers are around and even among us at all times. The photograph of the so-called Time Traveling Hipster, they maintain, is definitive proof.

The image depicts the opening if a bridge in November of 1941. The South Fork Bridge in Gold Bridge, British Columbia, was reopened after a flood, and one of the snapshots of that opening was included in the Bralorne Pioneer Museum’s virtual exhibit, Their Past Lives Here.

And that, of course, gives the photo an extra sense of authenticity. Clearly, it hadn’t been doctored, and that meant there was only one logical explanation for the ‘modern man’ wearing the sunglasses, apparently holding a camera, and seemingly wearing a modern, graphic t-shirt that left him sorely out of place. Time travel!

(Image: virtualmuseum.ca via Wikipedia; a closer look at the Time Traveling Hipster)

Unlikely? Of course. But the explanation for how all the seemingly modern elements came together in a 1940s photograph is no less intriguing.

According to forgetomori, everything in the photo can be easily explained – through a little research. First off, the sunglasses weren’t particularly strange. In fact, they were popular, with similar styles worn in movies like Double Indemnity. It’s also been suggested that the ‘Time Traveling Hipster‘ might be wearing welding goggles.

(Image: Alaney2k; Montreal Maroons ice hockey shirt)

A closer inspection of his shirt suggests that it might be embroidered, not stamped, and we can even take a guess as to what the logo is; it belongs to the Montreal Maroons, an ice hockey team that won the Stanley Cup in 1926 and 1935, and was ultimately disbanded in 1947.

And the camera? Also not unusual. Half hidden by other people in the photo, what we can see looks very much like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, turn-of-the-century camera. In fact, it’s likely to be a Folding Pocket Kodak.

(Image: Will Scullin; a Folding Pocket Kodak camera from 1903)

Time travel is an intriguing concept that’s spawned many a good movie over the years. But a history of hoaxes and misinterpretations have given rise to an entire genre of urban legends. Though seemingly out of place in this vintage photograph, the Time Traveling Hipster is a classic example of how modern myths can be created and proliferated via the internet – which is fascinating in an of itself.