Backus only began her art career after her marriage in 1894 and she was usually credited as "Mrs. George J. Backus". She was principally a sculptor and was highly active within the art community of Minneapolis. She was a member of the Arts and Crafts Society of Minneapolis and was elected its vice president in February 1901. She hosted the society's meetings in her studio and contributed her works to their annual exhibitions. Among her first publicly displayed works was a bust of Reverend H. M. Simmons. The life-size bust was displayed in the show window of the
Hudson's department store in 1898 and was praised for its strength of execution and excellent portraiture. In 1902 she created a relief portrait of J. S. Montgomery of Wesley Church. She donated the plaster relief to one of the church's bible schools to raise money for the church mortgage. In 1903, she designed her first bronze work, a memorial tablet of horticulturalist
John S. Harris (1826–1901). The tablet was cast at the
American Bronze Foundry Company in Chicago and shown at a meeting of the
Minnesota Horticultural Society in December 1903. It was described by an article in
The Minneapolis Journal as a "very satisfactory piece of work". Backus designed the clay tablet used for the bronze piece based on a poor photograph of Harris. The tablet depicts Harris in high relief, writing while holding an apple and bordered by grape vines. An inscription was included at the bottom. A statuette of hers entitled
The Miniature was praised in
The Minneapolis Journal for "the transparent, airy effect of the draperies". In 1904 she completed a bas-relief portrait of poet
Arthur Upson.
Statue of Captain John Tapper In 1904, Backus also sculpted a life-size statue of Captain John Tapper (1820–1909), an England-born veteran of the
Mexican–American War who served as a well-known ferryman across the Mississippi River above
Saint Anthony Falls. She conceived the project after learning that Tapper was still alive and spent a week trying to locate him before finally tracking him down at the
Minnesota State Fair. The plaster statue was displayed on the third floor at the downtown
Minneapolis Public Library for years, and was sent to the pioneer museum in the Godfrey House on Chute Square in 1915. It was lost some time after that. Backus recalled having asked that it be taken to a statuary shop belonging to Venanzio Pierotti where it could be packed and shipped to her in Florida. She later tried to track down the statue when she returned to Minnesota in 1937, but was unable to find it.
Bust of Joseph W. Hancock Backus designed a bronze bust of missionary Joseph W. Hancock in 1905. It was cast in Chicago and unveiled at the Carnegie library in
Red Wing.
Statue of William Colvill Backus's most well-known work is her statue of
William J. Colvill which resides in the rotunda of the
Minnesota State Capitol. The Minnesota legislature passed an act to secure a monument for the man, who had fought at the
Battle of Gettysburg and served as
Minnesota's Attorney General. The Col. William Colville [sic] Monument Commission was appointed by Governor Johnson in 1907. At a meeting in St. Paul, the commission asked the opinion of Chicago sculptor, Lorado Taft, who was in the city at the time. While he did not recommend any of the models, he thought the model by Backus had points in its favor. They selected Backus's model to execute in full-size bronze. The appropriation for the monument was $10,000. Backus had met Colvill in
Red Wing, Minnesota, and had the opportunity to draw him. After his death, she later made a
death mask of his head and face. Capitol architect
Cass Gilbert was not pleased with any of the four immense bronze Civil War statues that stand on the second floor of the building and he was least satisfied with the work of Backus, which he called a "damned bad statue." Despite Gilbert's evaluation, the work by Backus was placed in the Capitol, and many other memorials without Gilbert's blessing followed. ==Move to Florida==