Percy Stapleton was one of the foundation members of the Anthropological Society of South Australia (see AA 824). His interest in archeology and anthropology led to two publications: 'Aboriginal Relics in the Blinman District', SA Naturalist XII (2), February 1931, pp. 21-24; and 'Bifaced Stone Implements from South-Eastern South Australia' , Records of the South Australian Museum, 8, 1945, pp. 281-287.

Stapleton also contributed items to the South Australian Museum's ethnographic and archeological collections.