Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class Wanda Gág, Part 1 About this episode As an artist and writer Wanda Gág is well known for her children’s books. But this first of two parts about her life covers her own unusual childhood, which went from quirky fun to intense hardship when her father died.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:04 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argentix. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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1:15 Tracy V. Wilson? Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Robert, Mick, Bill, and Jessa strut back down memory lane for season two, sharing lessons on life, love, and loss. These are the kind of insights that only come from experience. So tune in to Silver Linings with The Old Gays on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Workplace chaos. We've all been there. Deadlines are slipping, projects are piling up, and suddenly you realize the missing piece is the right person. That's when you say, "This is a job for Sponsored Jobs." With Indeed Sponsored Jobs, your job post gets a boost so you can connect with quality candidates faster. In fact, Sponsored Jobs posted directly
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2:16 Holly Frey? Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeart Radio.
2:26 Holly Frey? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey.
2:29 Tracy V. Wilson? And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:31 Holly Frey? So artist Wanda Gog is another that has been on my list for quite a while. If you look at her art, it's pretty natural to want to know who the person behind it is. Alice Gregory, writing for The New Yorker in 2014, described Gog's work this way, which I thought was quite beautiful, quote, "fairy tale familiar, but also strange and unforgettably specific." Gog's work is high contrast. It's mostly black and white, and it runs the gamut from illustrations for children's books, which she also wrote, to intriguing still lifes that look anything but still. And her personality and her life story is equally enthralling, from her very unusual childhood to her quest for independence as an artist.
3:15 Holly Frey? We also have the benefit with Gog of covering a subject that was a prolific diarist, so we do know a lot about her inner thoughts and the details of her day-to-day life. And because of this wealth of information, and because I just find her wildly intriguing, she is a two-parter. So today, we're going to talk about her early life, up through art school, and her early professional career. And then on Wednesday's episode, we will talk about the fame and success that she had, starting in the late 1920s.
3:46 Tracy V. Wilson? Wanda Hazel Gog was born on March 11, 1893. She was the first child of Anton and Elizabeth Bebelgog. Elizabeth went by Lissy. Anton had moved to the US in 1872 from Bohemia, which at the time was part of Austria. He was 13 and had moved to the town of New Ulm, Minnesota. Lissy, who was 10 years younger than he was, moved to there just a year after he did, from her birthplace of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her parents, like Anton's, were from Bohemia.
4:19 Holly Frey? Anton stayed in New Ulm, which had a large Austrian-German population, as an adult. He had always envisioned a life as an artist for himself, but that wasn't an avenue that was really going to offer him a dependable living in New Ulm. Still, he incorporated creativity into his work as best he could, working as a photographer, a painter, and a decorator. One of his most prominent works was a mural that he painted on commission for the World's Fair the year Wanda was born, that was showing the Dakota attacking New Ulm in 1862. This was commissioned as the Sioux attacking New Ulm, just to point out how things have changed and how they kind of made up their own versions of what had happened. After that fair, the mural was moved to the Minnesota State Capitol.
5:04 Holly Frey? Wanda later wrote of this work, which was, of course, somewhat controversial, quote, "I have often wondered with what mixed emotions Papa must have made these pictures. Naturally, he sympathized with the pioneers, who through no fault of their own, had been so brutally attacked, and yet I know that he loved the Indians also and felt they had been wronged."
5:26 Tracy V. Wilson? Still, it made money, and Anton needed that money as he was starting a family. Thanks to that income, he was able to build a Queen Anne-style house in New Ulm at 226 North Washington Street. But practicality never dampened his or Lissy's love of the arts, and they strongly encouraged their children's creativity in every way. Anton and Lissy had six more children after Wanda: Stella, Deli, Howard, Asta, the Snelda, who went by Tussie, and Flavia. The early years of the Gog family sound quite beautiful and lively despite money being tight. The kids always had art projects, both at home and when visiting their nearby relatives.
6:10 Tracy V. Wilson? Apparently, when the kids found out that not everyone drew as part of their day-to-day life, they were taken aback and really a little confused. Wanda mentioned in her diary how odd it was that other families didn't think of, quote, "drawing and painting as essential activities as eating and sleeping."
6:30 Holly Frey? Wanda very clearly admired her father and deeply appreciated the artistic encouragement that their household offered to everyone in the family. She wrote, quote, "In our home, artistic expression of all kinds was taken for granted. Our father, Anton Gog, was an artist, and in our mother's family, the creative urge took the form of painting, modeling, and fine cabinet work. We children, six girls and a boy, all drew, and most of us wrote stories and poems." Anton Gog, though always in delicate health, worked hard and kept his large family in modest comfort. During the week for his livelihood, he decorated houses and churches, but on Sundays, for his inner satisfaction, he painted pictures
7:14 Holly Frey? in his attic studio. We children had learned early how to behave when someone was making something and were sometimes allowed in his studio while he painted there. I liked this. There was a silent, serious happiness in the air, which, although I had no words for it then, I recognized as the ineffable joy of creation. I had already experienced this exaltation myself at times, so I knew that on Sundays, my father was happy in his soul. But unfortunately, that happy home filled with the joy of creativity did not last forever. In May 1908, Anton died of tuberculosis, plunging the family into a period of grief and financial uncertainty.
7:58 Tracy V. Wilson? Wanda's diaries from her adolescence offer some insight into her drive to make money and also her feelings about her own artistic integrity. Her published diaries began on August 12, 1908, when she would have been 15. So that was just six months or so after her father's death. The first entry makes her mindset pretty clear. Quote, "I sent one of my pictures to the Journal Junior. Toddy's hanged our dollies and forgot to put my address on it. So I sent another envelope with my address on it. The same day I sent a story, Lou's Soap Bubble Party and a picture to illustrate it to McCall's. Sometime ago, I sent these three articles to the youth's companion. Story, Golden Brooch. Picture, Great Grandmother's Chest. Poem, Great Grandmother's Chest.
8:43 Tracy V. Wilson? I wonder how the whole thing will turn out. A few days ago, Margaret Kelly told me that Martha Schmidt didn't believe I drew freehand. She thinks I trace. Trace indeed, when I don't even care much for copying."
8:58 Holly Frey? I love how indignant she is at 15 that she's like, "How dare."
9:03 Tracy V. Wilson? Yes.
9:05 Holly Frey? On a more serious note, she also notes very carefully in the early entries, any money that she makes from her writing and any cash prizes she and her siblings win in competitions like at the county fair. She was very keenly aware of the loss of her father as a breadwinner, as well, of course, as a beloved family member. She mentions at one point that the money she has collected from various winnings will pay for shoes because she has outgrown hers and she cannot wear them any longer without pain. And this concern over finances may be linked to something that she took directly from her last moments with her father.
9:46 Holly Frey? His last words were, "What Papa was unable to accomplish, Wanda will have to finish." So whether he meant that in terms of artistic expression or in taking care of the family has been interpreted differently by different historians. But either way, that's a lot to put on a 15-year-old's shoulders. And to make matters worse, her mother, Lissy, was not in good health. So Wanda truly emerged at that point as the family's breadwinner when she was still a high school age teenager.
10:17 Tracy V. Wilson? We'll talk about Wanda's daily life and the struggles of the Gog family after Anton's death after we pause for a sponsor break.
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12:35 Holly Frey? We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends.
13:17 Holly Frey? Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Health vs. Hype on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
13:38 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jess A. have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy
14:23 Tracy V. Wilson? only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
14:43 Holly Frey? When Wanda wasn't drawing or writing material that she hoped to sell to bring money in, she was taking care of her six siblings. In one diary entry, she writes about a rumor that a classmate shared with her, quote, "Fern Fisher was here yesterday and she said that somebody told her that I don't do anything but read and draw. I guess so. I wonder if washing dishes, sweeping about six times a day, picking up things the baby and Howard throw around are reading. And I've never heard of taking care of babies, combing little sisters, cleaning bedrooms and attics as being classed as drawing. I wonder what else people will say about me." She also talks about making dinner when her mother, who had recently given birth
15:25 Holly Frey? to the last child of the family, needed to sleep. These entries about meal making are really saddening. She describes not having much food to cook with and having to figure out how to stretch what ingredients they could afford and how to divide the food among all the kids so everyone got some. But there are also delighted mentions of books she read, art her siblings made, gifts from relatives, et cetera. But always, always, the careful accounting of the money she makes through her magazine submissions and odd jobs like making party place cards on commission and how much she is able to give her mother to
16:05 Holly Frey? keep the family afloat. In 1909, 16-year-old Wanda had a professional break. The Minneapolis Journal published a 10-part series titled Robbie Bobby and Mother Goose Land and paid her $50 for it. As Wanda neared the end of high school and plotted a potential make-do job as a teacher, she also dreamed, as anyone would, of a life where she might not have to take such employment, noting in her diary, quote, "If I ever marry, next to marrying for love, I shall marry so that I won't have to bother myself with financial matters. At least, I think so now." She did get a teaching job in 1912 after graduating from high school, but her eye was still on an art career.
16:50 Tracy V. Wilson? And there were some fortuitous events that made that dream possible. She had never stopped entering her artwork in competitions, and she won a fair number of them, enough to be mentioned in the papers on several occasions. And those mentions got in front of the right eyes. Tyler McWhorter, the head of the St. Paul School of Art, had told Wanda that she could attend on a scholarship and that she only had to pay for living expenses. But that was way out of the realm of possibility financially. As Wanda put it, quote, "Which is certainly dandy, but the school experiment goes first. So, Mr. McWhorter, great deal of thanks and a pile of regrets to you." But then in 1913, a businessman from St. Paul named Charles Weskey
17:35 Tracy V. Wilson? visited the family home. Wanda knew he was coming to talk to her about art school and wrote in her diary, quote, "The martyr-like act for me to play would be to teach school and deny myself everything until I had the family properly settled. Then I could begin my career in life, however small it might be. But oh, I'm only human, and I do want to go to the university or to art school." Weskey, who knew McWhorter and had been in touch with him about Wanda's situation, told Wanda that he had been a fan of her father Anton's work, and he had seen her art in the paper and wanted to help her family. He pledged his own financial support
18:18 Tracy V. Wilson? to cover her room and board and whatever art supplies she needed. So she was off to art school.
18:24 Holly Frey? Wanda's diary entry about this whole thing happening is very charming. Quote, "Well, it's over. Mr. Weskey's visit, I mean, and I'm to go to art school. And such charming arrangements. I don't even have to work for my board. I shall probably stay at the YWCA and be independent, have a definite amount of money to put in the bank by someone or a number of someones and not do anything but do the things I was meant to do," as he expresses it. He impressed it fully upon us that his was no charity work, but that he was predestined, so to speak, to do what he was doing. He is doing it for art's sake and for humanity's sake.
19:04 Holly Frey? He thinks, oh, how can he, that I will repay humanity a thousandfold for what is being done for me. He knows just how I feel about things, simply taking words out of my mouth.
19:15 Tracy V. Wilson? We should mention, though, that while this was obviously a piece of good fortune for Wanda, it meant that another member of her family would have to take on the burden of bringing in money for the family. That person was her sister Stella, who, like Wanda, got a teaching job after high school. While money was in short supply, education was prioritized enough that none of the Gog children left school to work before graduating. So it was good timing that Stella was joining the workforce as this opportunity came to Wanda.
19:48 Holly Frey? After a year at art school, Wanda started working at a commercial art studio called Buckby Mears, which was something that the school had arranged, like a little internship. But it seems like there was a miscommunication here because Wanda had not realized that this was an unpaid internship. This wasn't really tenable, and she didn't tell her family initially because she didn't want to worry them. But then, before long, she was informed that she would be collecting a salary. And she didn't know it at the time, but her benefactor, Charles Weskey, had stepped in again. The firm was not paying her salary. He was, because he believed the experience she was gaining was valuable enough that she needed to stay.
20:31 Holly Frey? She didn't find out about this arrangement until years later.
20:34 Tracy V. Wilson? Gog clearly grappled with what people expected of her, as any young person in her position might. She wrote in the autumn that she was working in her internship, quote, "They, people, have been in a most terrible suspense all the time for a fear that I wouldn't get to the point where I would earn money." Paula reminded me of the time she had told me to draw magazine covers and said that was the result of hearing some remarks. They expect me to make a great deal of money and sort of along the side to become famous. And when I want neither fame nor money, ding it, ding it, ding it. I wish I had iron to bite or wood to gnaw or logs to chop.
21:18 Tracy V. Wilson? I know I need the money, but I can't sit here serenely listening while they lose the sight of the thing. I am afraid I shall have to disappoint them. If I were to become a popular magazine illustrator, they would undoubtedly say Wanda has made good, whereas if I turn my art over to life and win no fame, they will say she had talent, but she didn't use it in the right way. I like that she envisions herself like a perpetual starving artist. In a moment, we're going to talk about another patron who saw Wanda Gog's potential and encouraged her career. But first, we will hear from the sponsors who contribute to our careers by supporting the show.
22:00 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jess A. have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends proving that queer joy
22:46 Tracy V. Wilson? only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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24:41 Tracy V. Wilson? We've all done it, tumble down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose. And sometimes doing our own research can leave us more anxious than informed. Your feed is packed with wellness trends telling you to cold plunge, protein max, detox, track your sleep. But what's actually real? What's exaggerated? What's just wrong? That's exactly what Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association and iHeartMedia's Ruby Sturrock.
25:08 Holly Frey? Studio is here to find out. Each episode, Emmy nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez, who's racked up billions of views across PBS, Discovery Channel, and YouTube, talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends. Not to cancel them, not to hype them more, but to actually understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. Start asking better questions and listen to Help vs. Hype on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
25:50 Holly Frey? After a few months of her internship, Wanda actually managed to get another patron. That was Herschel V. Jones, who was the managing editor at the Minneapolis Journal. Jones took Wanda under his wing, and he paid for her to enroll at the Minneapolis School of Art. She commented on the main difference that she noticed at the new school as compared to her prior art school, and also manages to be very self-confident in doing so. Quote, "In the Minneapolis school, they go at things more methodically than in St. Paul, especially our teacher, Mr. Phoenix. I don't know, but that he is a trifle too methodical. However, I don't think I am in danger. I believe too sincerely in what I am fighting for, and I fight no less sincerely
26:34 Holly Frey? for that which I believe to be drawn dangerously far from the myself track. For half-artists, his method may be good. I mean, for people who can never hope to go beyond a certain limit in art, and people who have not enough good, sound, originality to lead them into the right paths." During this time, she also ruminated on what it meant to her to have ambition. In the winter of her first year in Minneapolis, she wrote, quote, "It's cowardly to be overly modest. In fact, I think many artists are modest for just that reason. For instance, a man would be afraid to say, 'If I want, I can make people sit up and notice my work.' He's afraid he can't live up to it. He's afraid of facing ignominious defeat.
27:18 Holly Frey? Ding, what if you don't succeed? You at least don't have to be ashamed of your aim. My aim is limitless. That I will never reach it, I know, but I'm going to get as near there as I can. That will keep me running all the rest of my life, believe me." Throughout all of these ups and downs, Gog had a close friend that she had met when he was a medical student who visited her high school during what was called University Week. So that was a week that was sponsored by the University of Minnesota, and it offered lectures for anyone to attend. And his name was Edgar Herman. Though, when her diary was published later in her life, she changed his name to Armand Emrod.
28:00 Holly Frey? She always insisted that their relationship was entirely innocent and platonic, but there are entries in her diary that suggest that she initially had a crush on him and then eventually developed more serious feelings. The two of them met when Edgar saw her drawing during one of the University Week events, and he managed to sit near her to watch her work. Edgar opened Wanda's world up to a great deal of culture that she had not had access to in her life in New Ulm. He introduced her to things like opera and to literature. And their relationship was quite long, although it seemed as though they often were in different places in terms of what each of them wanted out of it. So she, like I said, obviously at some points had feelings for him,
28:45 Holly Frey? but after one of their early outings, which kind of seems like a date, but it was unclear, I think, to both of them, and Wanda recorded in her diary, quote, "Just before I went into the door at the YW, I warned him not to get too romantic." Uh, it's slow for some reason. Uh, still Edgar became a cornerstone in her life for a while. And when she left New Ulm for St. Paul, and particularly after she went to Minneapolis School of Art, where he was, not at the school but in the city, he introduced her also to his circle of friends. And this kind of gave her a whole new cosmopolitan life. And Wanda really did seem to fall in love with Edgar, genuinely in love, but by the time she realized it,
29:29 Holly Frey? he had come to see her exclusively as a friend. And then by 1915, they had largely stopped socializing.
29:36 Tracy V. Wilson? After her friendship with Edgar had essentially ended, Wanda found a new, similarly intense friendship in another art student, Adolph Den. Den also expanded her worldview, but in a very different way from Edgar. The two of them had met in a group called the John Ruskin Society, which met for weekly salon-style discussions where group members hashed out a lot of social issues. Wanda did not back down from arguments in the group, and Adolph was a ready debate partner who would challenge her and help her work through her own ideas. He was also much more politically active and anti-establishment than Wanda, and over the course of their relationship, she became more involved in that world,
30:19 Tracy V. Wilson? eventually embracing socialism and feminism. This was harder than it may sound. We might think of artists as inherently liberal, and Wanda had certainly grown up in a home where artistic expression was valued, but it was also a very small town. And Gog's positions on various social issues were sometimes described as Victorian.
30:41 Holly Frey? She didn't believe in sex before marriage, for example, although that would change. And she was not interested in intoxicants. That's actually something I want to talk about on Friday. But it was really her thoughts on art, and specifically artistic talent, that she and Adolph debated early on. Gog thought that talent was something that you were simply born with and that it would carry true artists through to recognition, regardless of where they came from or what trends shifted the tastes of the art world. She also thought that artists didn't have a responsibility to anything or anyone but their gift in terms of how they use that natural skill. There is also some conceit at play in her position.
31:24 Holly Frey? She felt very clearly that she was better than other artists. And she also thought people who were not artistically gifted should just defer to people who were. Adolph introduced the argument that some people get better opportunities than others, and some of that was due to social standing, and that artists that did get a platform had a responsibility to use it in ways that educated viewers and helped them understand new ideas. And these differences of opinion, which seemed to be conversations and debates that went on for months and years with the two of them, did not sour Wanda Gog on Adolph Ben. Their ongoing debates really formed the backbone of their relationship.
32:03 Tracy V. Wilson? During art school, Gog also managed to make money with design commissions, and she sent money home to supplement Stella's income and help the family. The third Gog daughter, Tussie, had also graduated and took a teaching job to help out as well. In 1917, another huge blow came to the Gog family, which is that Elizabeth died. This was not entirely unexpected. During the Christmas of 1916, it was apparent to Wanda that Lissy was not well. She returned to school in January, but almost immediately turned around and went home again after receiving a message from her sisters that Lissy was rapidly declining. While Wanda was a young adult of 24 at the time, a lot of the kids were not.
32:48 Tracy V. Wilson? Flavia was only nine years old. It fell to Wanda, and also to Stella and Tussie, to just figure out what the future would be for the family.
32:58 Holly Frey? And while that was being figured out, Wanda returned to art school so she could finish her program in Minneapolis. Once school was finished, she, her sisters, and her friend Adolph Ben worked on the Gog house in New Ulm to get it ready for sale. Stella and Tessie didn't want to stay. They wanted to move to Minneapolis. And the younger four kids spent another autumn and winter in New Ulm because the house had not sold. At that point, the oldest among those four was kind of at an age where they could take care of the other kids. And also, when you have grown up in a house where a 15-year-old is the head of the family financially, I think some of those concepts of aging are a little skewed.
33:39 Holly Frey? But Tussie and Stella did move to Minneapolis and they got jobs there with Wanda's help.
33:44 Tracy V. Wilson? Wanda didn't stay in Minneapolis, though. She had been accepted into the Art Students League of New York for the 1917 to 1918 school year, as had Adolf, and she was able to go thanks to the generosity of Herschel V. Jones in financially supporting her. She really loved being in New York. She learned a lot of new art techniques and enjoyed the city's many museums. But things back in New Ulm were troubling for her. The four younger Gogs were really struggling, so Wanda took side jobs to get money to send to them for food and clothes and heat. When her school year in New York ended, she and her two oldest sisters worked out a plan. The new Ulm house finally sold and all the Gog kids moved to
34:29 Tracy V. Wilson? Minneapolis.
34:30 Holly Frey? Wanda's scholarship at the Art Students League was renewed for another year, and she was excited about it and felt more at peace going into the second year, knowing that her siblings were all together and that the younger ones had the oldest ones there to look after them. But New York wasn't as enjoyable as she had hoped this time around. Money was tight, and the need to constantly grind to find commercial jobs, dragging a big portfolio around, left her feeling, as she wrote in a journal, quote, "There is not much time to appreciate what we came to appreciate." She got a job lamp shading, literally designing lampshades, and she found that that job completely zapped her creative energy.
35:12 Tracy V. Wilson? This second year in New York was also pivotal for Wanda in terms of her relationship with Adolf Din. The two of them had many times professed their love for one another, but they also agreed that their art should always come first. At 26, Wanda had never had a sexual experience with anyone, and she made a decision that she and Adolf should finally have sex. The two of them were really communicative and methodical about planning this step, talking through what it would mean for their relationship. She also went to a doctor for birth control and then they finally had sex. And after all of that planning and thinking about it, Wanda found the whole experience ultimately a letdown.
35:55 Holly Frey? In 1921, Adolph went on a trip to Europe. And during that time, Wanda started seeing his roommate, Earl Humphreys. So initially, it sounds like this was intended to be a strictly friends with benefits situation while Adolph Den was away. But then he met someone else in Europe and he ended up staying there for years. Wanda and Earl continued to see one another and she was adamant that a regular sex life had become crucial for her art. Wanda didn't really believe in monogamy. And though her relationship with Earl did evolve into something more like a serious monogamous relationship and she was committed to him, she sometimes wrote in her journal about how she really
36:39 Holly Frey? always wished for the thrill of a new relationship.
36:43 Tracy V. Wilson? In the early 1920s, Wanda had some of her illustrations published in art magazines in the US and Europe. Much of Gog's work during this time was in printmaking and a lot of the imagery feels quite lonely. It reveals a New York that isn't necessarily the vibrant, bustling place many saw it to be, but instead shows the quiet interiors of people's lives, often depicting the life of a person who lives alone, such as Supper Laid for One, which was printed in the Marxist magazine New Masses in 1926. This illustration features a corner of a solo apartment. Despite the title, it's not really focused on a table, although one is partially in the scene on the right side of the frame.
37:28 Tracy V. Wilson? It's a high contrast, black and white image that conveys a stark, simple abode. It does not feel in any way joyous. It shows the strong influences of German Expressionism and the work of Vincent van Gogh, combining with Gog's own vision to create what would become her trademark style.
37:47 Holly Frey? She was a huge Vincent van Gogh fan, borderline fangirl. Several years before that art, Supper Laid for One was printed, Wanda had already shown a good deal of disillusionment with New York and with the commercial art world that she felt compelled to participate in to continue to support the Gog family. She wrote in her journal, quote, "I do not want to live in the restless, hectic, busy, busy life for which Americans are noted. I want to sort of ramble through life, not lazily, for I must be active to be happy. I want to read and study and work hard and live, but I do not want to always feel myself rushing along in pursuit of money."
38:32 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1923, Wanda had a solo show, her first, at the New York Public Libraries Branch on 96th Street. It ran from February 15th to April 1st and featured a mix of drawings for adults and children totaling 40 pieces. It got really positive attention. One of the attendees was well-known theatrical and industrial designer Norman Belgetti's, who liked that Gog's work was original and not derivative.
39:01 Holly Frey? Yeah, he apparently gave her some words of encouragement at the show. After the New York show, Wanda reassessed her situation. She was worn out with living in New York and she really wanted a solace. Unfortunately, she had kept the family afloat long enough that her siblings had aged up to the point where they could all work and take care of themselves. So she took advantage of the breathing room that shift afforded her and she moved to Connecticut for a reset, living out in the country for almost a year, except for going back to New York for the winter. Throughout her art career up to this point, she had been frustrated anytime she had to draw what someone else directed, whether that was in school or for her commercial work.
39:44 Holly Frey? And in Connecticut, she drew and painted for herself, producing a large volume of work in a relatively short time.
39:52 Tracy V. Wilson? One of the innovative things she tried during this time was drawing on sandpaper using a lithographic crayon. The resulting drawing could be used to make prints, sort of the way you'd make prints from a lithography stone. She experimented with this technique throughout her career after this, moving on from the lithography crayon to a brush and ink, noting that she had to be careful when using the brush because, quote, "It is easy to get a mussey drawing." She had a second show at the 96th Street New York Public Library Branch in the spring of 1924, which showed work she had done with this technique. Then she went back to the Connecticut countryside.
40:31 Holly Frey? The following year, she had 19 pieces selected to be shown at the Weyah Gallery. I'm not sure if that's how you pronounce it. I can't seem to find a good pronunciation, and it is a defunct gallery, so we'll never know. Unless somebody in the audience knows, and you can tell me, but it'll be too late for this show. That was curated by gallery director Carl Ziegrosir. Ziegrosir was able to very quickly sell several of the pieces, and Wanda, elated to have sold art that she had created strictly through her own inspiration, wrote of the sales, quote, "It made me happy to think that I had been able to get money for the things I really like to do. That doesn't happen often enough."
41:13 Holly Frey? In 1926, Ziegrosir gave her a solo show at the gallery. The reviews of that 1926 show were largely very positive, with the New York Post calling it, quote, "An alluring exhibition that is hard to leave."
41:27 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1927, Wanda published an essay titled "A Hotbed of Feminists." Possibly because of that essay, Wanda had put into motion something that would really shift her life in a significant way. We will talk about that shift in part two.
41:43 Holly Frey? In listener mail today, we have an email about The Boxcar Children. We have a few, I'm gonna get through them, I swear. This is from our listener Anne, who writes, "Dear Holly and Tracy, I just had to write in about The Boxcar Children. I appreciated learning about the author. On the Friday behind the scenes episode, you were wondering about whether they might not have been popular in the South. I can confirm that in the mid 80s, my elementary school in a metro Atlanta suburb had quite a few of The Boxcar Children books. My second grade teacher read The Boxcar Children aloud to our class, and I loved it. As a kid who always enjoyed playing house, the idea of kids playing house in a boxcar in the woods, but for real, with no adults or anything, was captivating to me.
42:26 Holly Frey? I later checked one or two of the other books out of the school library, but since they didn't live on their own in the boxcar anymore, it just wasn't the same, so I didn't continue the series, despite the fact that I loved mystery stories, and it would have been around the same time I was making my way through the entire Nancy Drew series. Thanks as always for the excellent podcast, Anne." This reminded me to talk about two things. One, I didn't mention, it's a spoiler if nobody's, if somebody hasn't read The Boxcar Children. But at the end of the first book, so if you haven't read it and you don't want to be spoiled, jump out now, it's fine. But at the end of the first book, they get the boxcar back. Like, they get to keep it in the backyard and use it as a playhouse.
43:11 Holly Frey? So it stays part of their lives, but it's not where they live anymore. The other thing that is funny is that, like Anne, I feel like there's a magical window that some people hit where you're simultaneously reading, like, The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Trixie Belden. I was blazing through all of those at the same time. So when she mentioned she was also reading Nancy Drew, it was a lovely memory of youth, so thank you, Anne. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at [email protected] . You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
43:52 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
44:06 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Previous SYMHC Classics: Theda Bara Next Wanda Gág, Part 2 Page updated November 3, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated