The original catalog of 2,712 rich clusters of galaxies was published in 1958 by George O. Abell (1927–1983),[2] who was then studying at the California Institute of Technology.

A. G. Wilson, another of the principal observers, assisted Abell in the initial stages of the survey by routinely inspecting the plates as they were produced.

These photographic plates were taken with the United Kingdom's 1.2-metre Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, in the 1970s.

An interim paper on the Southern Survey was read at a symposium in 1983, about one month before Abell's death; the catalog was completed by Ronald P Olowin of the University of Oklahoma, and published in 1989.

Abell and Corwin worked from original plates stored at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, scanning the plates visually with a 3x wide-angle magnifier; Olowin used high-quality film copies, which he scanned both visually with a 7x magnifying lens and automatically with a backlit digitizer.

The Southern Survey retains the system of designation devised by Abell for his original catalog, with the numbers running from 2713 to 4076.