[4] Among her instructors were William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Raphaël Collin, Luc-Olivier Merson, and Frederick William MacMonnies.

"[6] Mabel Harris Conkling's work was included in the 1900 Paris Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the 1908 Baltimore Sculpture Exhibition, at the National Academy of Design,[7] Harrisburg City Hall,[8] and many other shows.

She specialized in public sculptures, including fountains, relief panels, trophies, and cemetery urns.

[14][15] In 1901 Mabel Viola Harris married a fellow artist, David Paul Burleigh Conkling.

She was widowed in 1926,[16] sold her four-story Greenwich Village residence and studio at 26 West 8th Street in 1940,[17] and died in 1966, aged 94 years, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.