Known as Fanny, Pauline Wormser was born in Freiburg, in Baden-Württemberg, to Isaac Samuel Wormser and Scheinle Ephraim Wormser, one of five surviving children. Immigrating to the Unites States, Pauline married fellow German Jew William Frank in 1843. Three years later, the couple settled in Pittsburgh, where they would raise their family—bringing eight children into the world, five of whom survived into adulthood—and helped build the city’s Jewish community.

They were founders of Rodef Shalom, Pittsburgh’s earliest surviving synagogue, while their infant son Ephraim was one of the first people buried in the Jewish cemetery in the burial ground owned by the Bes Almon Burial Association, Western Pennsylvania’s first Jewish institution. She also founded the Jewish Ladies’ Relief Association, part of the Sanitary Commission, which provided aid and medical supplies to Union soldiers during the Civil War. Pauline also served for many years on the board of the Pittsburgh Association for the Improvement of the Poor.

Three of Pauline’s siblings joined her in Pittsburgh, including her brother Ephraim who went into business with William—in dry goods, at first, and then operating a successful glassworks for many years.