Figure 1 Wives wanted, Montana 1901. In the public domain in the United States because of its age.

Online dating services have become an integral part of our culture and modus operandi. But what did people do before the internet? Last night, I came across the photograph of Figure 1, which offers one solution attempted (we don’t know if they were successful, but hope they were) by a group of gentlemen in frontier Montana in 1901. Well, the wild west could be a mighty lonely place. We are told that these are early residents of Lake McDonald, left to right Bill Dauks, Fred Gedhun, Esli Apgar, and Dimon Apgar. Also, just like on today’s social media these fellas are advertising their sensitivity by “posting” pictures of their pets!