Reportage 18th century
Charles Best or Carl Conrad Best was a German-born British army officer who served in the armies of the East India Company.
Best served for over seventeen years in the Hanoverian forces stationed in India and in the British colonial administration. In his notes, published in 1807, he describes parts of India, including a description of Madras. The work also covers the East Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena, and is illustrated with landscapes and inhabitants of these places. The author also writes about the Hindu and Muslim religions, cults and customs, temples and mosques.
Anne Royall, née Newport, was an American writer, newspaper editor and traveler, one of the first women journalists in the United States.
After the death of her husband William Royall in 1813, Anne was left destitute, but she did not despair and completely changed her life. She was about 50 years old when she set out to travel the country and describe what she saw. She visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, Springfield, Hartford, Worcester, Boston, and New Haven. In each city, she asked respected citizens for interviews and subscriptions to her future books. She made detailed notes on each town's population, industry, physical description, local transportation, regional dialects, fashions, and the character of its inhabitants.
In all, Anne Royall wrote ten volumes of travel books. She was 57 years old when she published under a pseudonym her first book, The Traveler: Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the United States (1826), which provides a unique look at American life in the early nineteenth century. His first novel, The Tennessean, was published in 1827, followed by several others.
At the age of 62, in her home in Washington, D.C., Royall began publishing her own newspaper, Paul Pry (1831-1836) and then The Huntress (1836-1854). She exposed bribery and corruption and made many powerful enemies. Nevertheless, it is known that the intrepid journalist during her life met and talked with every man who occupied the presidential chair, from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln.
Wolfgang-Adam Töpffer was a Swiss and French painter, printmaker, caricaturist, and draftsman.
He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and painted landscapes and portraits. Later he became interested in plein air landscapes and excelled in this art. Töpffer is also known as a talented draughtsman and political cartoonist. His son Rudolf Töpffer also became a caricaturist.
Benjamin Zix was a French painter, engraver, and illustrator.
He is known for accompanying Napoleon's military campaign, producing many battlefield drawings. Zix also painted portraits, mythological scenes, allegories, landscapes, and caricatures.