Commercial Press
Stafford was commissioned by Commercial Press of Shanghai to take pictures for the books being published at that time, as many of his photos appear in books published at that time by Commercial Press. One of these books was a textbook titled Geography of China and was published in 1911, which contained about 25 of his photos. Another book, titled China's Revolution: 1911-1912 by Edwin Dingle, contains many of Stafford's photographs of soldiers fighting on both sides of the famous 1911 Wuchange Uprising in the Wuhan area of China. A Commercial Press handbook states the Francis Stafford brought color printing technology to China.