Francis Stafford

Francis E. Stafford (born February 3, 1884) moved to Shanghai in 1909 where he worked for Commercial Press for six years. Stafford is best known for his photography of the Chinese Revolution (1911), also known as the Xinhai Revolution, in which the last dynasty was overthrown. He also took hundreds of important images of Chinese social life during the period from 1909 to 1915.

Francis Eugene (Frank) Stafford spent his early years in Boulder, Colorado, where his father served as City Clerk. At age 17, in 1901 Francis moved to Mountain View, California where he obtained a job at the Pacific Press Publishing Association. He was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Jessen on November 1905, and their son, Clarence Stafford was born on October 1906. While working he became an expert in photo engraving and learned photography. This helped him find a job in Shanghai, under a year's contract with the Commercial Press, to install a photoengraving plant, and teach their workman to run it, where he moved with his family in 1909. Frank Stafford was among the first Seventh-day Adventist missionaries to acquire a knowledge of the Shanghai dialect. In 1911 he became director of the Kiangsu Church Mission. Miss Frances Stafford their daughter was born in 1912. In 1915, due to health problems, he returned to the United States, living in Honolulu, HI most of his remaining life. Francis Stafford died on February 1, 1938 and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale CA.

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.

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