William Leggo
Illustration — Photograph of Leggo taken in 1871 William Augustus Leggo (25 January 1830 – 21 July 1915) was a Canadian inventor, engraver and businessperson. He is noted for co-inventing the half-tone engraver with George-Édouard Desbarats. He had several patents to his name, including leggotyping and granulated photography.
Also recorded as William Augustus Leggo
William Leggo
https: central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol id=3191994 lang=eng ecopy=c079300 (deep link to file: [1]) · Public domain
- Born
- 1830 · Quebec City.
- Nationality
- Canada
- Occupation
- photographer · entrepreneur
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Photograph of Leggo taken in 1871 William Augustus Leggo (25 January 1830 – 21 July 1915) was a Canadian inventor, engraver and businessperson. He is noted for co-inventing the half-tone engraver with George-Édouard Desbarats. He had several patents to his name, including leggotyping and granulated photography.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for William Leggo. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q3502139 · wikipedia · William Leggo
In this article
Early life
Early life
Leggo was born in Quebec City on January 25, 1830, to William Augustus Leggo, a bookbinder and engraver, and Margaret Grant. After graduating from Quebec High School, he apprenticed as an engraver, first to his father and then to Cyrus A. Swett in Boston.
Career
Career
Leggo worked with his brothers Thomas, Edward, and Henry in the family engraving business before partnering with George-Paschal Desbarats and Stewart Derbishire as Wm. A Leggo and Company on January 21, 1863. George-Paschal's son, George-Édouard Desbarats, joined the partnership when Derbishire died in March 1863, and became sole partner when his father died in November 1964. The two patented "Leggotyping", a type of photomechanical reproduction for letterpress printing, on February 27, 1865. Leggo and Desbarats founded Leggo and Company in Montreal on January 21, 1868. Desbarats' newspapers, Canadian Illustrated News (est. October 1869) and L'Opinion publique (est. January 1870), both made use of Leggotyping. In 1873, the pair formed the Union Art Publishing Company and founded the New York Daily Graphic, the first daily illustrated newspaper. While it was a pioneering effort, it was not a financial success, and Desbarats returned to Montreal soon after. The paper ran until 1889, but by 1879 Leggo was also back in Montreal, where he began a business partnership with William H. Guillebaud as Leggo and Company. Leggo died in 1915 at Lachute, Quebec.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1830
William Leggo born at Quebec City.
1915
William Leggo died at Lachute.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Quebec City.
Birth place
Lachute.
Death place
Publications
*
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Photography
11,392 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- William KurelekPhotographer
- William KurtzPhotographer
- William L. FinleyPhotographer
- William LeavittPhotographer
- William Lyman UnderwoodPhotographer
- William M. GallagherPhotographer
- William McIntoshPhotographer
- William McKenzie MorrisonPhotographer
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by William Leggo?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.