Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first illustration ever created was a set of hieroglyphs carved into the walls of the Tomb of Pharaoh Seti I, completed by 1279 BC. These images served as a visual language that allowed ancient Egyptians to communicate complex religious and historical narratives to a population that might not have been able to read the accompanying text.
The key artists of the Golden Age of Illustration included N.C. Wyeth, Howard Pyle, and Jessie Willcox Smith. These creators defined the American imagination during a period of rapid industrialization and trained a generation of artists through the Brandywine School.
The British magazine Punch began using the term cartoon to describe a humorous illustration in 1841. John Leech, often called the world's first cartoonist, worked alongside Sir John Tenniel and the Dalziel Brothers to create images that encapsulated the social mores and class structures of Victorian England.
The median salary for a science illustrator is US$72,277. This figure reflects the high level of expertise required to bridge the gap between scientific data and public understanding in fields ranging from medicine to engineering.
Paul Jouve created 130 illustrations for Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book between 1905 and 1915. This project took him ten years to complete and remains one of the masterpieces of bibliophilia.