Eleanor Abrams was originally from Butler, Pennsylvania and came from a wealthy family. She was one of the original members of the Philadelphia Ten. She worked as an Occupational Therapist during WWI.

Abrams specialized in flower still lives and garden scenes, especially from Bermuda where she often wintered. She studied with Henry B. Snell and Elliott Daingerfield at the Philadelphia School of Design. Also with Snell in the summers in Gloucester, MA, and Daingerfield in Blowing Rock, NC. She won the P. Pemberton Morris prize for Pictorial Illustration from the Philadelphia School of design when she graduated in 1908. She was known to exhibited at the Plastic Club; "Thumb Box Sketches" in NY; and the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. She may have had a one woman show in Pittsburgh around 1921. She also exhibited her work at the John Dewar Company in 1928. Abrams was a member of the Associated Artist of Pittsburgh.

Some paintings can be found on the cover of Literary Digest. She first shared a studio with Lucile Howard and Cora S. Brooks in Philadelphia. Then later with M. Elizabeth Price and Lucile Howard in New York. The bulk of her work was mistakenly dispersed at the sale of her estate in 1982.