Career
Up until Mary Abel"s marriage to John Jay Abel in 1883, little is known of Abel"s early life. In 1891, Mary and John returned to the United States where Mary began her work in home economics and nutrition. Abel initially moved to the midwest but relocated to Baltimore in 1893.
While in Europe, Mary learned enough German to allow her to write Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking in English and German, after she returned to the United States.
Abel also became interested in comparative methods of domestic economy in Europe causing her to initiate work with Ellen Swallow Richards at the New England Kitchen. The first publication by Abel, Richards, and others was published in 1892 on the science of nutrition.
Abel produced many popular pamphlets for the Rumford Kitchen, established by Richards, for the Chicago World"s Fair. The conferences were developed with the intention of discussing the betterment of the home and were a push into the up and coming home economics movement.
Abel continued to produce pamphlets on the prevention of infectious diseases, such as typhoid fever.
Abel"s best known work, Successful Family Life on the Moderate Income, was published in 1921. Abel"s book detailed how individuals of limited means could live well. Abel apparently used these methods in her own home very effectively.
