840
began experimenting with the chemical properties of
developer in 1864. Educated through tutors and the
Philadelphia chemistry laboratory of Booth, Garrett and
Blair, Lea particularly studied the function of silver in
the development process. His scientifi c advancements
of photographic processes included inventing the fi rst
mordant-dye picture in 1865 and increasing the clar-
ity of developed dry plate negatives in 1880. Lea also
wrote prolifi cally about his experiments. In 1864–1866,
he assumed the position of American correspondent
to the British Journal of Photography and became a
steady contributor to the Philadelphia Photographer
and Photographic Mosaics. In 1868, he authored A
Manual of Photography. During the 1870s and 1880s,
he continued to experiment with silver halide salts and
the color process, including the description of “photo
haloids” (i.e., metal compounds that resemble salt) in
1885 and the discovery of “allotropic” forms of silver
of various colors between 1889 and 1891. On March
15, 1897, Lea died in Philadelphia, two years after his
election to the National Academy of Sciences.
Erika Piola
LEGEKIAN, G & CO
(dates unknown)
The name “G Legekian” is found on a large number
of very fi ne images of Egypt from the late nineteenth
century, but very little is known of the photographer(s)
who created them.
Known to have produced dry-plate images from
10”x8” up to ‘mammoth’ 20" × 16" images, the Cairo-
based Legekian studio—next door to the well-known
Shepheard’s Hotel (misspelled “Shephard’s” on his
cards)—was at the forefront of the tourist market from
c.1880.
Legekian himself is believed to have been Armenian,
but personal details are signifi cantly diffi cult to fi nd.
In 1883 or 1884 the Legekian studio was appointed
Photographers to the British Army of Occupation in
Sudan, and that appointment signalled a temporary
change of language on their photographs—from French
to English, and from G Legekian photographie artis-
tique, atelier special de peinture to G. Legekian & Co.
In 1890, some cartes-de-visite include both appellations.
By 1891, however, their cartes and larger pictures were
once again captioned exclusively in French.
Several Legekian images from the late 1890s were
included in the book Celebrities of the Army published
by Newnes in 1902, and the 1906 book New Egypt
records that Legekian “has, besides some remarkable
portraits, a unique collection of views both in large prints
and in postcards.”
John Hannavy
LEGGO, WILLIAM AUGUSTUS
(1830–1915)
Inventor, leggotyper, engraver, and publisher
William Augustus Leggo, was born Quebec, Quebec,
25 January 1830; died Lachute, Quebec, 21 July 1915.
Trained originally as an engraver, fi rst by his father,
William Augustus Leggo Sr., and later by Cyrus A.
Swett with whom he completed his apprenticeship in
Boston, Leggo had by 1850 established himself as an
engraver in Quebec City. From this traditional print
background, Leggo, together with George Edward
Desbarats (1838–1893) who became Leggo’s business
partner in 1864, went on in the 1860s and 1870s to
pioneer important advances in the graphic arts though
the application of photography to early photomechani-
cal printing processes. Indeed in 1869, their efforts
contributed towards revolutionizing global communi-
cation in terms of how newspapers were illustrated by
their publication of the world’s fi rst letterpress halftone
reproduction of a photograph.
Leggo’s and Desbarats’ early photomechanical pro-
cess, named leggotyping, was fi rst identifi ed in 1864
as an improved photoelectrotyping process to provide
an inexpensive, rapid means of producing accurate
facsimilies of any type of line image via either relief or
intaglio plates without assistance of engraving or other
hand work. With Desbarats fi nancial backing, Leggo
continued to perfect the process and to expand its ap-
plication to allow halftone images of photographs and
other tonal works to be photomechanically reproduced
using a type-compatible format. The goal to expand leg-
gotyping to halftone work was achieved in September
1869 when a Canadian patent was granted for “Leggo’s
granulated photographs.” Shortly thereafter, Leggo and
Desbarats put their line and halftone photomechanical
discoveries to commercial use to illustrate Desbarats’
new pictorial weekly the Canadian Illustrated News.
Launched October 30, 1869, the Montreal based paper
featured a cross-lined screen halftone of William Not-
man’s photograph of His Royal Highness Prince Arthur
in its inaugural issue. Leggotyped line and halftone
images were also used to illustrate L’Opinion publique,
Desbarats’ french language counterpart to the Canadian
Illustrated News, and the process became a speciality of
the two partners’ fi rm, Leggo & Company.
Further advances in halftone reproduction followed
in September 1870 when Leggo and Desbarats applied
their recently patented process which married lithog-
raphy and leggotyping to the pages of the Canadian
Illustrated News, making it the fi rst periodical to have
its illustrations printed planographically. The process
was also applied to L’Opinion publique beginning 1871
and to the partner’s illustrated newspaper, the New York
Daily Graphic, which they launched March 4, 1873.