Catherine Backus

Catherine Fallis Backus (1863–1955) was an American sculptor. She created several commemorative bronze statues and busts from the 1890s through the first decade of the 20th century. She is perhaps most well known for creating a statue of William J. Colvill for the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol.

Backus was a student at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts and studied under sculptor Lorado Taft at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. During her career she created a statue of the ferryman Captain John Tapper, a tablet depicting horticulturalist John S. Harris, a bas-relief portrait of poet Arthur Upson, and busts of missionary Joseph W. Hancock and Reverend H. M. Simmons. After 1911, she moved to Florida with her family where she undertook large-scale flower gardening.