Crowley began her literary work in 1877 as a contributor of poems and short stories to Wide Awake, St. Nicholas Magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, and The Pilot.

Crowley was a recognized authority on the early history of that city, and a leader in its bicentennial celebration in 1901, the pageant being founded on descriptions in her book A Daughter of New France.

Crowley lectured extensively on art and literature, and was the author of several novels: Merry Hearts and True (1889), Happy'-Go-Lucky (1890), Apples, Ripe and Rosy (1893), The City of Wonders (1894), The Sentinel of Metz (1897), An Every Day Girl (1900), Tilderee (1900), A Daughter of New France (1901), The Heroine of the Straits (1902), Love Thrives in War (1903), and In Treaty with Honor (1906).

[6] A resident of Detroit for nearly ten years, Crowley made herself thoroughly familiar with the early history of that region, and from her acquaintance with old French families, and from the pages of old memoirs, she gathered the material for her first historical novel, The Heroine of the Strait.

Crowley's scholarship and invention were demonstrated in the depicting of the conspiracy of Pontiac and the siege of Detroit by the Native Americans under his command.