These papers consist of course notes, exams and other documents stemming from courses taken and taught by Abel; academic papers and articles authored by Abel and others; conference proceedings, correspondence, and committee records documenting his administrative role at the New School for Social Research; and a manuscript for Abel's work, Man is the measure. Some of Abel's original folder titles have been maintained while others have been expanded and revised for clarity. This collection does not contain papers of a personal nature, nor does it contain records of his career as a department store buyer (1929-1948) or president and treasurer of the Atlas Bedspread Company (1948-1961).

A notable component of Abel's papers is documentation on lectures offered at the New School for Social Research by prominent faculty members and visiting scholars, many outside of Abel's concentration in philosophy. Abel appears to have been attracted to lectures on the arts, psychology, and sociology, but attended lectures on endocrinology, mathematics, and housing reform in addition to an array of other topics. The predominantly handwritten notes were contained in two bundles (an additional folder was added during processing) often accompanied by typed bibliographies. The following is a semi-comprehensive list of lecturers with a selection of lecture titles included:

Rudolf Arnheim, Max Ascoli ("After the New Deal"), Adolf A. Berle, Marcel Barzin, Ernest Sutherland Bates, Gregory Bateson, S. B. Boudin, Arnold Brecht, Kenneth Burke, V.F. Calverton, George DeSantillana, De Sloovere, L.C. Dunn, Arthur Feiler, Emil J. Gumel, Charles Hartshorne, Selig Hecht, Eduard Heimann ("Nature and History of Capitalism"), Will Herberg, Sidney Hook, Karen Horney, Erich Hula, Edgar Johnson, Horace Kallen, Edward Kasner ("The New Mathematics"), Felix Kaufmann, Paul Keller, Otto Klineburg, Alexandre Koyre, A.P. Lerner, Max Lerner, Alexander Lesser, Nino Levi ("The Sociology of Law"), Karl Lowith, Bronislaw Malinowski, William Marias Malisoff, Charles Morris, Ernest Nagel ("Philosophy of Science"), S. Nathan ("Concepts of Mathematics"), Franz Oppenheimer ("Economic Theory"), Talcott Parsons ("Role of the Professions"), Alexander Pekelis, Kurt Riezler, Lindsay Rogers, Albert Salomon ("Philosophy of Freedom"), James Sand, Paul Schrecker, Alfred Schutz ("Problems of Social Knowledge"), Charles Seeger, Meyer Shapiro ("Theories of Modern Art"), Hans Speier ("Hero Worship"), Max Wertheimer ("Psychology of Learning"), Ernst Karl Winter, Fritz Wittels ("Psychiatry and Social Services").

Hook's and Kaufmann's lectures are particularly well represented within the notebooks. Some lectures appear to have been part of the New School for Social Research's General Seminar. According to the Spring 1934 course catalog, the General Seminar consisted of lectures given by the Graduate Faculty as a group: "Each session will be opened by one of the members of the faculty with an analysis of the scope of the problem before the group. The discussion will then be taken up informally by other members of the faculty and by students." (Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science Supplementary Announcement, 1934, unpaginated).

Of additional interest is documentation on the creation of a student journal. 12th Street: A Quarterly was initially published by the Magazine Committee of the New School Student Assembly, a student-led organization established in the mid-1940s. At the time, the New School for Social Research's only building was located at 66 West 12th Street in Greenwich Village. 12th Street was a literary and scholarly endeavor rather than a typical college newspaper. At this time, the New School for Social Research primarily served an adult population (Abel was in his early thirties in 1944 when the first issue was published). The editorial staff, with Abel as editor-in-chief (Jean Rhys served as associate editor), sought original contributions from current New School students as well as alumni in the social sciences, the arts, and creative writing.