Edgar Waite Hargreaves was a painter and printmaker who was born in England on 20 April 1880. He settled in San Francisco in 1899 and served in the U.S. Army during World War I. Following the war, Hargraves studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. He worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad as a car inspector and used his leisure time to paint and do other forms of artwork. He exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association in 1924 and the San Francisco Chapter for the Sanity in Art in 1944 at the California Palace of the Legion of Art.

Edgar Waite Hargreaves died in San Francisco on 24 December 1959.