📍The Bronx, New York, NY, USA
1914 – 1934“I was born in October 1914 in East Harlem, New York, the eldest of three sons of Daniel and Dora Salk. My father worked in the garment trade, designing lace collars and blouses, and my mother had come from Minsk as a girl of twelve. Neither had much schooling, but they were determined that their boys would. When I was small we moved to the Bronx, to an apartment at 853 Elsmere Place, and we spent some time in Arverne, by the beach in Queens. The New York of my childhood was crowded and hard-working, full of immigrant families like ours. Two memories stayed with me. In 1916 a polio epidemic swept the city, leaving children paralysed and parents terrified. And on Armistice Day in 1918, I watched a parade of wounded soldiers and was deeply troubled by what I saw. My mother was ambitious for me, sometimes fiercely so; she wanted me to be a doctor, not a lawyer, and I was a serious, quiet boy who loved to read. At thirteen I went to Townsend Harris High School, a free school for gifted boys, where we did four years of work in three. At fifteen I entered City College, and later medical school at New York University, where I chose research over practice because I hoped to help humankind rather than one patient at a time. In 1955 the polio vaccine my team developed was declared safe, and I chose not to patent it. My childhood home on Elsmere Place now carries a historic medallion.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today