After returning to the United States, Perry received a commission to sculpt a series of bas-reliefs for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in 1894.

The success of this work in Washington led to other commissions including a design for the statue of Commonwealth on top of the dome of Pennsylvania's new Capitol Building in 1905.

He also created the spandrels on the temporary Dewey Arch in New York City (1899), Thompson Elk Fountain standing in the Plaza Blocks of downtown Portland, Oregon (1900), interior reliefs for the New Amsterdam Theater in New York City, (1903), statues of Dr. Benjamin Rush in Washington and of General George S. Greene at Gettysburg Battlefield (both 1904), the Perry Lions on the Connecticut Avenue Bridge in Washington (1906), a figural group atop Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee (1907), the John B Castleman Monument (1913), and a monument to the Thirty-Eighth Infantry in Syracuse, New York (1920).

Perry was a member of the Grand Central Art Galleries and the National Sculpture Society.

Perry's cousin was the sculptor Clio Hinton Bracken, and the two shared studio space for a time.