Historical Figures You Would Swipe Right On

Age: 21

Bio: I ain't planning on getting married anytime soon, but if you're looking to grab a drink and maybe go out shooting, I'm your gal.

Cost Of A Date: $

Pros: You'll have a good time with Annie Oakley, a natural born showman who's as well-connected as possible in the American West. Grab a drink, grab a couple pistols, and let her dazzle you with her legendary sharpshooting.

Cons: She was a famous sharpshooter, right? Best hope the date doesn't go badly; you don't want to be on her bad side.

Age: 30

Bio: I believe that the feelings that we experience when we are in love represent a normal state. Being in love shows a person who he should be.

Cost Of A Date: $$

Pros: While Chekhov was one of the greatest playwrights and short story writers ever to have lived, he preferred that people think of him in his practice as a doctor. He was introspective, humble, and kind. This humanity showed through his more mature stories and plays, although he had a subtle and wry sense of humor as well, and insisted that his most influential plays (The Seagull, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya) should be thought of as comedies. His kindness and decency would go a long way on a first date.

Cons: Unfortunately, no good man goes unpunished, and Chekhov was plagued by ill health throughout his life. By his mid-to-late 30s, the evidence of his tuberculosis had become overwhelming, and in 1897 he suffered a lung hemorrhage. The rest of his life was marked by failing struggles against ill health, until eventually he perished at the age of 44.

Age: 32

Bio: Loves nothing more than sleeping under the stars then getting up in the morning for a day-long hike in the American West. Mountain man with a sensitive artistic side as a photographer. Swipe right if fancy city living just ain't for you!

Cost Of A Date: $

Pros: Curtis was a one-of-a-kind ethnologist who amassed more than 40,000 photographs of Native American tribes over his extensive career. He was a skilled camper and had to be in excellent physical shape in order to make his treks deep into the west to visit these tribes.

Cons: While he was very successful in collecting photographs, he was not terribly successful financially. His photography never made him much money, and he passed mostly unknown while living with his daughter in Los Angeles.

Age: 32

Bio: I have no intention of sitting here and waiting to be wooed. As quickly as you can, describe to me the advantages our union would bring, with particular focus to the territorial and military assets you currently have access to.

"Why every man great 'til he gotta be great?"

Cost Of A Date: $$$$ (Can be paid in land, and will probably count towards a dowry.)

Pros: You want fierce, you want cunning? Unafraid of strong women? Eleanor of Aquitaine used the medieval institution of marriage to climb to the top of the political ladder in medieval Europe, becoming one of the most powerful women in the Western world during the High Middle Ages. Well-educated and accustomed to courtly life, Eleanor can also be relied on to stun at any fancy dress occasion.

Cons: Let's be real, few of us have access to vast tracts of land or massive hereditary political power. It's unlikely that Eleanor, the consummate social climber, would be terribly interested in your average Tinder user. 

Age: 32

Bio: I'm only on here for a social experiment in which I analyze the frequency of swipes relative to population density and check that against traditional metrics of sexual behavior in urban adult populations.

Cost Of A Date: 0 (Because it won't happen.)

Pros: There has never been another genius like Tesla, and it's difficult to imagine someone more fascinating to sit down with at dinner. In addition to his raw scientific genius, he's a sensitive and creative thinker. Well-mannered and kind, he seems fairly close to a perfect date.

Cons: Unfortunately, he won't be going on a date with you or anyone else. Tesla always claimed that celibacy was a key part of his creative equilibrium and, so far as we know, never went on a date with anyone.

Age: 21

Bio: What are your opinions on the rights of women in the 19th century? Which of Wordsworth's poems is your favorite? Do you believe that our increasing faith in scientific formulae is rendering us incapable of understanding our place in the world as a species? I eagerly await your detailed response, by handwritten letter please, to this first round of questions.

Cost Of A Date: $$$$

Pros: Mary was a genius not just for Frankenstein, which she wrote when she was 21, but for numerous other literary achievements. She was also an outspoken feminist thanks to her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. It wasn't all genius and study, however, as she was also part of a bohemian movement of young people who knew how to cut loose and have a good time.

Cons: Shelley was a delight, but you'd better be sure you're ready to hang with her friends. She was part of a circle of young, brash geniuses, including Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. These men were known to make sport of mocking anyone they thought was below their incredibly high level of intellect and talent.