[4][5][3] Abbot studied at the Corcoran School of Art and was the student of Catherine Carter Critcher, Edmund C. Tarbell,[6] Richard Norris Brooke,[6] William M. Chase, and others.

[6] On October 13, 1897, she married astrophysicist Charles Greeley Abbot, the 5th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

[9][10][11][12] Once married, Abbot accompanied and assisted her husband during his expeditions on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, including to Algeria, South Africa, and India.

[3][13] They lived between Washington, D.C., and Mount Wilson (Los Angeles County, California).

[15] Abbot died on June 1, 1944, two days before her 75th birthday, at her home in Washington, D.C., following a long illness.