When looking for love, one of the first places people are told to turn to are the personals.  No matter if it’s a dating website, personal ads in the back of the newspaper, Craigslist, or whatever, lonely people will always turn to the written word in order to seek out true love (or at least new love).  The personal ad has been around forever, as you’ll see from these 19th Century personals uncovered by the New York Times.

The ads aren’t from the Times, but rather the old New York Herald.  Apparently, people loved the personal ads back then, due to the titillation that comes with reading someone else’s innermost thoughts.  Apparently, they were the reality television of 1875:  wildly popular, yet completely scorned by the intelligentsia and social critics.

I guess some things really do never change, huh?

Image: “T”eresa via Neatorama

Tags: Craigslist, Victorian-era Craigslist, unusual ads, want ads, classified ads, newspapers, personal ads from the 1800s, historical personals, New York Herald, missed connections

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