Kansas, Massachusetts, New York
After graduation, she returned to Kansas, to Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan, Kansas, where she served as Secretary for the college and the first instructor of drawing at the school. While living in Kansas, she was engaged to be married to a farmer. However, the marriage apparently never took place, and in May 1873, she instead married James Wells Champney – her former drawing instructor – who happened to be traveling through Manhattan, Kansas, as part of a trip through the Louisiana Purchase to illustrate an article entitled The Great South by Edward King for Scribner’s Monthly. Her first published piece, a poem, was published six months after her marriage.
For three years after their marriage, the couple traveled through the southern United States and Europe before settling on the East Coast. In 1876, the Champneys, returned to the United States, and settled in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Champney began publishing travel fiction in Harper's Magazine. Her short stories were rapidly accepted. In the larger monthlies, both for children and adults, she contributed more than 86 articles, poems, and brief romances. In 1879, the couple acquired an additional home in New York City, where James opened a studio at 96 Fifth Avenue.
In 1880, the couple secured a contract to illustrate a series of articles for Century Magazine. For this endeavour, the pair embarked on travel to North Africa, Spain and Portugal, visiting localities, such as Tangier and Tétouan in Morocco, that not been covered by any of the illustrated magazines of the period. In Europe, they lived with gypsies, and also spent a brief period living with the rebels of Don Carlos. In Spain, they encountered the art of the Spanish realist, Mariano Fortuny and the French painter, Henri Regnault, and spent much of their time following in the artists' footsteps across Spain, France and Morocco. Between 1880 and 1890, the Champneys made several trips to Europe, and in 1890 Champney opened a studio in Paris. Between 1880 and 1890, the Champneys made several trips to Europe, and in 1890 Champney opened a studio in Paris.
The Champneys also continued to make frequent trips to Europe and other foreign locations, including North Africa, which provided material for both of their work, including England, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and other well-known and less known portions of Europe. It was near this same period she attempted her first novel, that met with some success, was highly spoken of by critics, but did not achieve for her the accolades she had wished. In 1881, a romance, Rosemary and Rue, appeared, and it was widely admired.
