The appearance of a child in a 120-year-old photo taken during the Yukon gold rush -- has suggesting that the picture features a 鈥�.鈥�
But not just any time traveller: the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The black-and-white photograph entitled 鈥淭hree children operating rocker at a gold mine on Dominion Creek, Yukon Territory, circa. 1898,鈥� belongs to the archives at the University of Washington.
One of the children, with braids and a stoic stare, bears a striking resemblance to the Swedish teenager and climate change activist.
The resemblance between the gold miner and Thunberg has sent conspiracy theorists into a tailspin.
Among the many tweets, one person : 鈥淪o, 鈥楪reta Thunberg鈥� is in a photo from 120 years ago, and it鈥檚 my new favourite conspiracy. Greta鈥檚 a time traveller from the future, and she鈥檚 here to save us.鈥�
In a phone interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday, Kristin Kinsey, the digital and visual materials specialist at the university archives, called all the attention 鈥渞eally insane.鈥�
But the story behind the photo is not as far-fetched as the jokesters suggest.
SWEDISH PHOTOGRAPHER CAPTURED THE GOLD RUSH
The photo is actually part of a , who documented the Alaska-Yukon gold rush as the 19th century turned into the 20th.
Kinsey says that the set was one of the first collections the school ever received. She dubbed it one of the 鈥渃ore collections鈥� the university has on the gold rush.
鈥淗e, along with a lot of photographers, went up and dragged their equipment by dogsled, by boat,鈥� Kinsey said. 鈥淗e took (photos of) various aspects of the gold mining -- that big adventure, the big explosion of gold-seekers.鈥�
According to the university鈥檚 page on Hegg鈥檚 life, during the summer of 1898, he and his brother Peter made their way up the Yukon River to document the stampede of prospectors.
鈥淏efore Hegg left in June, he turned the majority of his work which was produced in the British Columbia town of Bennett over to the photographer Edward Hamacher who later relocated to Whitehorse,鈥� the site explains.
The biography adds that many of the photographs were developed under 鈥渁rduous circumstances,鈥� which included a travelling darkroom in the bow of a specially-designed small boat.
But the image featuring the Thunberg-lookalike was of note because the photos didn鈥檛 usually capture many children mining for gold, Kinsey said. And the identity and nationality of the children remain a mystery because the photographer didn鈥檛 list their names.
鈥淚t鈥檚 this kind of mini-operation and that little kid looks like he鈥檚 around five,鈥� she laughs. 鈥淚 mean, you don鈥檛 see too many families sitting around doing this.鈥�
Since 1997, the university has been digitizing and cataloguing all of their photo collections on a searchable, public online database.
Although staff at the university are unsure how the photograph ended up on the internet鈥檚 radar, they鈥檙e delighted by all the attention it has brought to their collection.
