Born in New Ulm, Minnesota

Wanda Hazel Gág was born on March 11, 1893, in the small Bohemian immigrant community of New Ulm, Minnesota. She was the eldest of seven children born to Anton Gág and Elisabeth (Biebl) Gág, both of whom had emigrated from Bohemia. Her father was a house painter and decorator who also worked as a fine artist, and it was in his small studio that young Wanda first encountered oil paints and brushes.

Growing up in a household steeped in Central European folk traditions and artistic practice, Gág was encouraged from an early age to draw and paint. Her father reportedly told her on his deathbed, when she was only fifteen, to continue the artistic work he could not finish. This moment became formative in shaping her resolve to pursue art professionally despite the financial hardships that followed her father's death.

The environment of New Ulm, with its strong German-Bohemian cultural identity, folklore, and oral storytelling traditions, would later deeply influence the fairy-tale sensibility and old-world charm present in her illustrated children's books. Her upbringing amid financial struggle, immigrant identity, and creative encouragement set the stage for her later emergence as one of America's most innovative picture-book artists and authors.