185-1856         Over Kauffman & Whitmore’s Store, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.

William Leisenring was recorded in one advertisement that appeared on February 14, 1856 in the  Mount Pleasant Observer (Mount Pleasant, Iowa).  Cutting’s Ambrotypes!  Or Pictures In Glass, By William Leisenring, at his old stand on the 3d floor of Kauffman & Whitmore’s store on the west side of the public square.

Having bought the right of Henry county, he is prepared to take the beautiful and Never Changing pictures in glass which are rapidly taking the place of Daguerreotypes they are a positive picture, showing the person without reversing.  They are beautiful in tone, bold and clear in effect.  The Ambrotype is taken on the best plate glass; an indestructible cement is then put upon it and another glass of the same size pressed upon it.  The cement soon hardens, and the two glasses become in effect one, with the picture in the centre [as] though it were in solid glass.  Clear days are the best for children.  Instructions given in the Art either in Daguerreotype or Ambrotype, or both.

Mr. Leisenring will be found at [his] rooms from 8½ o’clock A. M. till 4 P. M.  Wm. Leisenring.  Dec. 27’55.

William Leisenring is recorded in Craig’s Daguerreian Registry as being active in 1859-1860 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  Also listed in Pioneer Photographers From The Mississippi To The Continental Divide A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865.