Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 2: Wilson. So artist Wanda Gog is another that has been
Speaker 2: on my list for quite a while. If you look
Speaker 2: at her art, it's pretty natural to want to know
Speaker 2: who the person behind it is. Alice Gregory, writing for
Speaker 2: The New Yorker in twenty fourteen, described Gog's work this way,
Speaker 2: which I thought was quite beautiful quote fairy tale familiar,
Speaker 2: but also strange and unforgettably specific. Gog's work is high contrast.
Speaker 2: It's mostly black and white, and it runs the gamut
Speaker 2: from illustrations for children's books, which she also wrote, to
Speaker 2: intriguing still lifes that look anything but still. And her
Speaker 2: personality in her life story is equally enthralling, from her
Speaker 2: very unusual childhood to her quest for independence as an artist.
Speaker 2: We also have the benefit with Gog of covering a
Speaker 2: subject that was a prolific diarist, so we do know
Speaker 2: a lot about her inner thoughts and the details of
Speaker 2: her day to day life. And because of this wealth
Speaker 2: of information, and because I just find her wildly intriguing.
Speaker 2: She is a two parter, so today we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about her early life up through art school and
Speaker 2: her early professional career, and then on Wednesday's episode we
Speaker 2: will talk about the fame and success that she had
Speaker 2: starting in the late nineteen twenties. Wanda Hazel Gog was
Speaker 2: born on March eleventh, eighteen ninety three. She was the
Speaker 2: first child of Anton and Elizabeth Biebelgog. Elizabeth went by Lissi.
Speaker 2: Anton had moved to the US in eighteen seventy two
Speaker 2: from Bohemia, which at the time was part of Austria.
Speaker 2: He was thirteen and had moved to the town of
Speaker 2: New Ulm, Minnesota. Lissy, who was ten years younger than
Speaker 2: he was, moved there just a year after he did
Speaker 2: from her birthplace of Hairsburg, Pennsylvania. Her parents, like Anton's,
Speaker 2: were from Bohemia.
Speaker 1: Anton stayed in Newulm, which had a large Austrian German population.
Speaker 1: As an adult, he had always envisioned a life as
Speaker 1: an artist for himself, but that wasn't an avenue that
Speaker 1: was really going to offer him a dependable living in Newolm. Still,
Speaker 1: he incorporated creativity into his work as best he could,
Speaker 1: working as a photographer, a painter, and a decorator. One
Speaker 1: of his most prominent works was a mural that he
Speaker 1: painted on commission for the World's Fair the Yrwanda was
Speaker 1: born that was showing the Dakota attacking New Elm in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty two. This was commissioned as the Sioux attacking
Speaker 1: New Elm, just to point out how things have changed
Speaker 1: and how they kind of made up their own versions
Speaker 1: of what had happened. After that fair, the mural was
Speaker 1: moved to the Minnesota state Capitol. Wanda later wrote of
Speaker 1: this work, which was, of course somewhat controversial, quote, I
Speaker 1: have often wondered with what mixed emotions Papa must have
Speaker 1: made these picks. Naturally, he sympathized with the pioneers, who
Speaker 1: threw no fault of their own, had been so brutally attacked,
Speaker 1: and yet I know that he loved the Indians also
Speaker 1: and felt they had been wronged. Still, it made money,
Speaker 1: and Anton needed that money as he was starting a family.
Speaker 1: Thanks to that income, he was able to build a
Speaker 1: Queen Anne style house in New Olm at two twenty
Speaker 1: six North Washington Street, but practicality never dampened his or
Speaker 1: Lyssi's love of the arts, and they strongly encouraged their
Speaker 1: children's creativity in every way. Anton and Lissie had six
Speaker 1: more children after Wanda, Stella, Delhi, Howard, Asta, the Znelda
Speaker 1: who went by Tussy and Flavia. The early years of
Speaker 1: the Gog family sound quite beautiful and lively. Despite money
Speaker 1: being tight, the kids always had art projects, both at
Speaker 1: home and when visiting their nearby relatives. Apparently, when the
Speaker 1: kids found out that not everyone drew as part of
Speaker 1: their day to day life, they were taken aback and
Speaker 1: really a little confused. Wanda mentioned in her diary how
Speaker 1: odd it was that other families didn't think of quote,
Speaker 1: drawing and painting as essential activities as eating and sleeping.
Speaker 1: Wanda very clearly admired her father and deeply appreciated the
Speaker 1: artistic encouragement that their household offered to everyone in the family.
Speaker 1: She wrote, quote, in our home, artistic expression of all
Speaker 1: kinds was taken for granted. Our father, Anton Gog, was
Speaker 1: an artist, and in our mother's family, the creative urge
Speaker 1: took the form of painting, modeling, and fine cabinet work.
Speaker 1: We children, six girls and a boy, all drew, and
Speaker 1: most of us wrote stories and poems. Anton Gog, though
Speaker 1: always in delicate health, worked hard and kept his large
Speaker 1: family in modest comfort. During the week, for his livelihood,
Speaker 1: he decorated houses and churches, but on Sundays, for his
Speaker 1: inner satisfaction, he painted pictures in his attic studio. We
Speaker 1: children had learned early how to behave when someone was
Speaker 1: making something, and were sometimes allowed in his studio while
Speaker 1: he painted there. I liked this. There was a silent,
Speaker 1: serious happiness in the air, which, although I had no
Speaker 1: words for it, then I recognized as the ineffable joy
Speaker 1: of creation. I had already experienced this exaltation myself at times,
Speaker 1: so I knew that on Sundays my father was happy
Speaker 1: in his soul. But unfortunately, that happy home, filled with
Speaker 1: the joy of creativity, did not last forever. In May
Speaker 1: nineteen oh eight, Anton died of tuberculosis, plunging the family
Speaker 1: into a period of grief and financial uncertainty. Wanda's diaries
Speaker 1: from her adolescence offer some insight into her drive to
Speaker 1: make money and also her feelings about her own artistic integrity.
Speaker 1: Her published diaries began on August twelfth, nineteen oh eight,
Speaker 1: when she would have been fifteen so that was just
Speaker 1: six months or so after her father's death. The first
Speaker 1: entry makes her mindset pretty clear. Quote.
Speaker 2: I sent one of my pictures to the journal Junior
Speaker 2: Toddy's hanged our dollies and forgot to put my address
Speaker 2: on it, so I sent another envelope with my address
Speaker 2: on it the same day. I send a story Lose Soap,
Speaker 2: Bubble Party, and a picture to illustrate it to McCall's.
Speaker 2: Some time ago, I sent these three articles to the
Speaker 2: Youth Companion Story, Golden Brooch, picture, great Grandmother's Chest, poem,
Speaker 2: great Grandmother's Chest. I wonder how the whole thing will
Speaker 2: turn out. A few days ago, Margaret Kelly told me
Speaker 2: that Martha Schmid didn't believe I drew freehand. She thinks
Speaker 2: I trace trace, indeed, when I don't even care much
Speaker 2: for copying.
Speaker 1: I love how indignant she is an me that she's
Speaker 1: like how dare yes. On a more serious note, she
Speaker 1: also notes very carefully in the early entries any money
Speaker 1: that she makes from her writing, in any care prizes
Speaker 1: she and her siblings win in competitions like at the
Speaker 1: County Fair. She was very keenly aware of the loss
Speaker 1: of her father as a breadwinner as well, of course,
Speaker 1: as a beloved family member. She mentions at one point
Speaker 1: that the money she has collected from various winnings will
Speaker 1: pay for shoes because she has outgrown hers and she
Speaker 1: cannot wear them any longer without pain. And this concern
Speaker 1: over finances may be linked to something that she took
Speaker 1: directly from her last moments with her father. His last
Speaker 1: words were what Papa was unable to accomplish, Wanda will
Speaker 1: have to finish. So whether he meant that in terms
Speaker 1: of artistic expression or in taking care of the family
Speaker 1: has been interpreted differently by different historians. But either way,
Speaker 1: that's a lot to put on a fifteen year old shoulders.
Speaker 1: And to make.
Speaker 2: Matters worse, her mother Lissy, was not in good health,
Speaker 2: so Wanda truly emerged at that point as the family's
Speaker 2: breadwinner when she was a high school age teenager. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about Wanda's daily life and the struggles of the
Speaker 2: Goog family after Anton's death, after we pause for a
Speaker 2: sponsor break. When Wanda wasn't drawing or writing material that
Speaker 2: she hoped to sell to bring money in, she was
Speaker 2: taking care of her six siblings. In one diary entry,
Speaker 2: she writes about a rumor that a classmate shared with her, quote,
Speaker 2: fern Fisher was here yesterday and she said that somebody
Speaker 2: told her that I don't do anything but read and draw.
Speaker 1: I guess so. I wonder if washing dishes, sweeping about
Speaker 1: six times a day, picking up things the baby and
Speaker 1: Howard throw around are reading and I've never heard of
Speaker 1: taking care of babies, combing little sisters, cleaning bedrooms and
Speaker 1: attics as being classed as drawing. I wonder what else
Speaker 1: people will say about me.
Speaker 2: She also talks about making dinner when her mother, who
Speaker 2: had recently given birth to the last child of the family,
Speaker 2: needed to sleep. These entries about mealmaking are really saddening.
Speaker 2: She describes not having much food to cook with and
Speaker 2: having to figure out how to stretch what ingredients they
Speaker 2: could afford, and how to divide the food among all
Speaker 2: the kids so everyone got some. But there are also
Speaker 2: delighted mentions of books she read, art her siblings, made
Speaker 2: gifts from relatives, etc. But always always the careful accounting
Speaker 2: of the money she makes through her magazine submissions and
Speaker 2: odd jobs like making party place cards on commission, and
Speaker 2: how much she is able to give her mother to
Speaker 2: keep the family afloat. In nineteen oh nine, sixteen year
Speaker 2: old Wanda had a professional break. The Minneapolis Journal published
Speaker 2: a ten part series titled Robbie, Bobby and Mother Gooseland
Speaker 2: and paid her fifty dollars for it. As Wanda neared
Speaker 2: the end of high school and plotted a potential make
Speaker 2: do job as a teacher, she also dreamed, as anyone would,
Speaker 2: of a life where she might not have to take
Speaker 2: such employment, noting in her diary quote, if I ever married,
Speaker 2: next to marrying for love, I shall marry so that
Speaker 2: I won't have to bother myself with financial matters, at
Speaker 2: least I think so now. She did get a teaching
Speaker 2: job in nineteen twelve after graduating from high school, but
Speaker 2: her eye was still on an art career, and there
Speaker 2: were some fortuitous events that made that dream possible. She
Speaker 2: had never stopped entering her artwork in competitions, and she
Speaker 2: won a fair number of them, enough to be mentioned
Speaker 2: in the papers on several occasions, and those mentions got
Speaker 2: in front of the right eyes. Tyler McWhorter, the head
Speaker 2: of the Saint Paul's School of Art, had told Wanda
Speaker 2: that she could attend on a scholarship and that she
Speaker 2: only had to pay for living expenses, but that was
Speaker 2: way out of the realm of possibility financially. As Wanda
Speaker 2: put it, quote, which is certainly dandy, but the school
Speaker 2: experiment goes first. So mister mcwarter, great deal of thanks
Speaker 2: and a pile of regrets to you. But then in
Speaker 2: nineteen thirteen, a businessman from Saint Paul named Charles Wesky
Speaker 2: visited the family home. Wanda knew he was coming to
Speaker 2: talk to her about art school and wrote in her
Speaker 2: diary quote, the martyr like act for me to play
Speaker 2: would be to teach school and deny myself everything until
Speaker 2: I had the family properly settled. Then I could begin
Speaker 2: my career in life, however small it might be. But oh,
Speaker 2: I'm only human, and I do want to go to
Speaker 2: the university or to art school. Weshkey, who knew mcwarter
Speaker 2: and had been in touch with him about Wanda's situation,
Speaker 2: told Wanda that he had been a fan of her
Speaker 2: father Anton's work, and he had seen her art in
Speaker 2: the paper and wanted to help her family. He pledged
Speaker 2: his own financial support to cover her room and board
Speaker 2: and whatever art supplies she needed. So she was off
Speaker 2: to art school.
Speaker 1: Wanda's diary entry about this whole thing happening is very charming. Quote,
Speaker 1: well it's over, mister Weshke's visit, I mean, and I'm
Speaker 1: to go to art school and such charming arrangements. I
Speaker 1: don't even have to work for my board. I shall
Speaker 1: probably stay at the YWCA and be independent, have a
Speaker 1: definite amount of money to put in the bank by
Speaker 1: someone or a number of someone's, and not do anything
Speaker 1: but do the things I was meant to do. As
Speaker 1: he expresses it, he impressed it fully upon us that
Speaker 1: his was no charity work, but that he was predestined,
Speaker 1: so to speak, to do what he was doing. He
Speaker 1: is doing it for art's sake and for humanity's sake,
Speaker 1: he thinks, Oh, how can he that I will repay
Speaker 1: humanity a thousandfold for what is being done for me.
Speaker 1: He knows just how I feel about things, simply taking
Speaker 1: words out of my mouth.
Speaker 2: We should mention, though, that while this was obviously a
Speaker 2: piece of good fortune for Wanda, it meant that another
Speaker 2: member of her family would have to take on the
Speaker 2: burden of bringing in money for the family. That person
Speaker 2: was her sister, Stella, who like Wanda, got a teaching
Speaker 2: job after high school. While money was in short supply,
Speaker 2: education was prioritized enough that none of the God children
Speaker 2: left school to work before graduating, so it was good
Speaker 2: timing that Stella was joining the workforce as this opportunity
Speaker 2: came to Wanda. After a year at art school, Wanda
Speaker 2: started working at a commercial art studio called BUCKB. Mears,
Speaker 2: which was something that the school had arranged, like a
Speaker 2: little internship. But it seems like there was a miscommunication
Speaker 2: here because Wanda had not realized that this was an
Speaker 2: unpaid internship. This wasn't really tenable, and she didn't tell
Speaker 2: her family initially because she didn't want.
Speaker 1: To worry them. But then before long she was informed
Speaker 1: that she would be collecting a salary, and she didn't
Speaker 1: know it at the time, but her benefactor, Charles Weshkey,
Speaker 1: had stepped in again. The firm was not paying her sealery.
Speaker 1: He was because he believed the experience she was gaining
Speaker 1: was valuable enough that she needed to stay. She didn't
Speaker 1: find out about this arrangement until years later.
Speaker 2: God clearly grappled with what people expected of her, as
Speaker 2: any young person in her position might she wrote in
Speaker 2: the autumn that she was working in her internship. Quote,
Speaker 2: they people have been in a most terrible suspense all
Speaker 2: the time for fear that I wouldn't get to the
Speaker 2: point where I would earn money. Paula reminded me of
Speaker 2: the time she had told me to draw magazine covers
Speaker 2: and said that was the result of hearing some remarks.
Speaker 2: They expect me to make a great deal of money
Speaker 2: and sort of along the side to become famous. And
Speaker 2: when I want neither fame nor money, ding it, ding it,
Speaker 2: ding it, I wish I had iron to bite, or
Speaker 2: would to gnaw, or logs to chop. I know I
Speaker 2: need the money, but I can't sit here serenely listening
Speaker 2: while they lose the sight of the thing. I am
Speaker 2: afraid I shall have to disappoint them. If I were
Speaker 2: to become a popular magazine illustrator, they would undoubtedly say
Speaker 2: Wanda has made good, Whereas if I turned my art
Speaker 2: over to life and win no fame, they will say
Speaker 2: she had talent, but she didn't use it in the
Speaker 2: right way. I like that she envisions herself like a
Speaker 2: perpetual starving artist. In a moment, we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about another patron who saw Wanda Dog's potential and encouraged
Speaker 2: her career. But first we will hear from the sponsors
Speaker 2: who contribute to our careers by supporting the show. After
Speaker 2: a few months of her internship, Wanda actually managed to
Speaker 2: get another patron.
Speaker 1: That was Hershel V. Jones, who was the managing editor
Speaker 1: at the Minneapolis Journal. Jones took Wanda under his wing
Speaker 1: and he paid for her to enroll at the Minneapolis
Speaker 1: School of Art. She commented on the main difference that
Speaker 1: she noticed at the new school as compared to her
Speaker 1: prior art school, and also manages to be very self
Speaker 1: confident in doing so. Quote, in the Minneapolis School they
Speaker 1: go at things more methodically than in Saint Paul. Especially
Speaker 1: our teacher, mister Phoenix. I don't know but that he
Speaker 1: is a trifle too methodical. However, I don't think I
Speaker 1: am in danger. I believe too sincerely in what I
Speaker 1: am fighting for, and I fight no less sincerely for
Speaker 1: that which I believe to be drawn dangerously far from
Speaker 1: the myself track. For half artists, his method may be good.
Speaker 1: I mean for people who can never hope to go
Speaker 1: beyond a certain limit in art, and people who have
Speaker 1: not enough good, sound originality to lead them into the
Speaker 1: right paths.
Speaker 2: During this time, she also ruminated on what it meant
Speaker 2: to her to have ambition. In the winter of a
Speaker 2: first year in Minneapolis, she wrote, quote, it's cowardly to
Speaker 2: be overly modest. In fact, I think many artists are
Speaker 2: modest for just that reason. For instance, a mine would
Speaker 2: be afraid to say, if I want, I can make
Speaker 2: people sit up and notice my work. He's afraid he
Speaker 2: can't live up to it. He's afraid of facing ignominious defeat.
Speaker 2: Ding What if you don't succeed, you at least don't
Speaker 2: have to be ashamed of your aim. My aim is limitless.
Speaker 2: That I will never reach it, I know, but I'm
Speaker 2: going to get as near there as I can. That
Speaker 2: will keep me running all the rest of my life,
Speaker 2: believe me. Throughout all of these ups and downs, gog
Speaker 2: had a close friend that she had met when he
Speaker 2: was a medical student who visited her high school during
Speaker 2: what was called University Week. So that was a week
Speaker 2: that was sponsored by the University of Minnesota, and it
Speaker 2: offered lectures for anyone to attend. And his name was
Speaker 2: Edgar Herman. Though when her diary was published. Later in
Speaker 2: her life, she changed his name to armand Mrod. She
Speaker 2: always insisted that their relationship was entirely innocent and platonic,
Speaker 2: but there are entries in her diary that suggest that
Speaker 2: she initially had a crush on him and then eventually
Speaker 2: developed more serious feelings. The two of them met when
Speaker 2: Edgar saw her drawing during one of the university week
Speaker 2: events and he managed to sit near her to watch
Speaker 2: her work. Edgar opened Wanda's world up to a great
Speaker 2: deal of culture that she had not had access to
Speaker 2: in her life in New Ulm. He introduced her to
Speaker 2: things like opera and to literature, and their relationship was
Speaker 2: quite long, although it seemed as though they often were
Speaker 2: in different places in terms of what each of them
Speaker 2: wanted out of it. So she, like I said, obviously
Speaker 2: at some points had feelings for him. But after one
Speaker 2: of their early outings, which kind of seems like a
Speaker 2: date but it was unclear, I think to both of them,
Speaker 2: and Wanda recorded in her diary quote just before I
Speaker 2: went into the door at the YW I warned him
Speaker 2: not to get too romantic love.
Speaker 1: For some reason, still, Edgar became a cornerstone in her
Speaker 1: life for a while, and when she left New Olm
Speaker 1: for Sane Paul, and particularly after she went to Minneapolis
Speaker 1: School of Art, where he was not at the school
Speaker 1: but in the city. He introduced her also to his
Speaker 1: circle of friends, and this kind of gave her a
Speaker 1: whole new cosmopolitan life, and Wanda really did seem to
Speaker 1: fall in love with Edgar, genuinely in love, but by
Speaker 1: the time she realized it, he had come to see
Speaker 1: her exclusively as a friend, and then by nineteen fifteen
Speaker 1: they had largely stopped socializing. After her friendship with Edgar
Speaker 1: had essentially ended, Wanda found a new, similarly intense friendship
Speaker 1: in another art student, Adolf Den. Den also expanded her worldview,
Speaker 1: but in a very different way from Edgar. The two
Speaker 1: of them had met in a group called the John
Speaker 1: Ruskin Society, which met for weekly salon style discussions where
Speaker 1: group members hashed out a lot of social issues. Wanda
Speaker 1: did not back down from arguments in the group, and
Speaker 1: Adolf was a ready debate partner who would challenge her
Speaker 1: and help her work through her own ideas. He was
Speaker 1: also much more politically active and anti establishment than Wanda,
Speaker 1: and over the course of their relationship, she became more
Speaker 1: involved in that world, eventually embracing socialism and feminism. This
Speaker 1: was harder than it may sound. We might think of
Speaker 1: artists as inherently liberal, and Wanda had certainly grown up
Speaker 1: in a home where artistic expression was valued. But it
Speaker 1: was also a very small town, and Gog's positions on
Speaker 1: various social issues were sometimes described as Victorian. She didn't
Speaker 1: believe in sex before marriage, for example, although that would change,
Speaker 1: and she was not interested in intoxicants. That's actually something
Speaker 1: I want to talk about on Friday. But it was
Speaker 1: really her thoughts on art and specifically artistic talent that
Speaker 1: she and Adolf debated early on. Gog thought that talent
Speaker 1: was something that you were simply born with and that
Speaker 1: it would carry true artists through to recognition, regardless of
Speaker 1: where they came from or what trends shifted the tastes
Speaker 1: of the art world. She also thought that artists didn't
Speaker 1: have a responsibility to anything or any one but their
Speaker 1: gift in terms of how they used that natural skill.
Speaker 1: There is also some conceit at play in her position.
Speaker 1: She felt very clearly that she was better than other artists,
Speaker 1: and she also thought people who were not artistically gifted
Speaker 1: should just defer to people who were Adolf introduced the
Speaker 1: argument that some people get better opportunities than others, and
Speaker 1: some of that was due to social standing, and that
Speaker 1: artists that did get a platform had a responsibility to
Speaker 1: use it in ways that educated viewers and help them
Speaker 1: understand new ideas. And these differences of opinion, which seemed
Speaker 1: to be conversations and debates that went on for months
Speaker 1: and years with the two of them, did not sour
Speaker 1: Wandagog on Adolph Ben. Their ongoing debates really formed the
Speaker 1: backbone of their relationship.
Speaker 2: During art school, Gog also managed to make money with
Speaker 2: design Commision, and she sent money home to supplement Stella's
Speaker 2: income and help the family. The third Gog daughter, Tussy,
Speaker 2: had also graduated and took a teaching job to help
Speaker 2: out as well. In nineteen seventeen, another huge blow came
Speaker 2: to the Gog family, which is that Elizabeth died. This
Speaker 2: is not entirely unexpected. During the Christmas of nineteen sixteen,
Speaker 2: it was apparent to Wanda that Lissie was not well.
Speaker 2: She returned to school in January, but almost immediately turned
Speaker 2: around and went home again after receiving a message from
Speaker 2: her sisters that Lissie was rapidly declining. While Wanda was
Speaker 2: a young adult of twenty four at the time, a
Speaker 2: lot of the kids were not. Flavia was only nine
Speaker 2: years old. It fell to Wanda, and also to Stella
Speaker 2: and Tussy to just figure out what the future would
Speaker 2: be for the family. And while that was being figured out,
Speaker 2: Wanda returned to art school so she could finish her
Speaker 2: program in Minneapolis. Once school was finished, she her sister,
Speaker 2: and her friend Adolph Den worked on the Gog House
Speaker 2: in New Olm to get it ready for sale. Stella
Speaker 2: and Tessie didn't want to stay. They wanted to move
Speaker 2: to Minneapolis, and the younger four kids spent another autumn
Speaker 2: and winter in Newolm because the house had not sold.
Speaker 2: At that point, the oldest among those four was kind
Speaker 2: of at an age where they could take care of
Speaker 2: the other kids. And also, when you have grown up
Speaker 2: in a house where a fifteen year old is the
Speaker 2: head of the family financially, I think some of those
Speaker 2: concepts of aging are a little skewed. But Tussy and
Speaker 2: Stella did move to Minneapolis and they got jobs there
Speaker 2: with Wanda's help. Wanda didn't stay in Minneapolis, though she
Speaker 2: had been accepted into the Art Students League of New
Speaker 2: York for the nineteen seventeen to nineteen eighteen school year,
Speaker 2: as had Adolph, and she was able to go thanks
Speaker 2: to the generosity of herschel v Jones and financially supporting her.
Speaker 2: She really loved being in New York. She learned a
Speaker 2: lot of new art techniques and enjoyed the city's many museums.
Speaker 2: Back in New Olm were troubling for her. The four
Speaker 2: younger Gogs were really struggling, so Wanda took side jobs
Speaker 2: to get money to send to them for food and
Speaker 2: clothes and heat. When her school year in New York ended,
Speaker 2: she had her two oldest sisters worked out a plan.
Speaker 2: The new almhouse finally sold, and all the god Kids
Speaker 2: moved to Minneapolis. Wanda's scholarship at the Art Students League
Speaker 2: was renewed for another year, and she was excited about
Speaker 2: it and felt more at peace going into the second year,
Speaker 2: knowing that her siblings were all together and that the
Speaker 2: younger ones had the oldest ones there to look after them.
Speaker 2: But New York wasn't as enjoyable as she had hoped
Speaker 2: this time around. Money was tight and the need to
Speaker 2: constantly grind to find commercial jobs dragging a big portfolio
Speaker 2: around left her feeling, as she wrote in a journal quote,
Speaker 2: there is not much time to appreciate what we came
Speaker 2: to appreciate. She got a job lampshading, literally designing lampshades,
Speaker 2: and she found that that job completely zapped her creative energy.
Speaker 2: This second year in New York was also pivotal for
Speaker 2: Wanda in terms of her relationship with Adolph Den. The
Speaker 2: two of them had many times professed their love for
Speaker 2: one another, but they also agreed that their art should
Speaker 2: always come first. At twenty six, Wanda had never had
Speaker 2: a sexual experience with anyone, and she made a decision
Speaker 2: that she and Adolf should finally have sex.
Speaker 1: The two of.
Speaker 2: Them were really communicative and methodical about planning this step,
Speaker 2: talking through what it would mean for their relationship. She
Speaker 2: also went to a doctor for birth control, and then
Speaker 2: they finally had sex, and after all of that planning
Speaker 2: and thinking about it, Wanda found the whole experience ultimately
Speaker 2: a letdown.
Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty one, Adolph went on a trip to Europe,
Speaker 1: and during that time, Wanda started seeing his roommate Earl Humphries,
Speaker 1: so initially it sounds like this was intended to be
Speaker 1: a strictly friends with benefits situation while Adolf Dan was away,
Speaker 1: but then he met someone else in Europe and he
Speaker 1: ended up staying there for years. Wanda and Earle continued
Speaker 1: to see one another, and she was adamant that a
Speaker 1: regular sex life had become crucial for her art. Wanda
Speaker 1: didn't really believe in monogamy, and though her relationship with
Speaker 1: Earle did evolve into something more like a serious monogamous
Speaker 1: relationship and she was committed to him, she sometimes wrote
Speaker 1: in her journal about how she really always wished for
Speaker 1: the thrill of a new relationship. In the early nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: Wanda had some of her illustrations published in art magazines
Speaker 1: in the US and Europe. Much of Gog's work during
Speaker 1: this time was in printmaking, and a lot of the
Speaker 1: imagery feels quite lonely. It reveals in New York that
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily the vibrant, bustling place many saw it to be,
Speaker 1: but instead shows the quiet interiors of people's lives, often
Speaker 1: depicting the life of a person who lives alone, such
Speaker 1: as supper laid for one, which was printed in the
Speaker 1: Marxist magazine New Masses in nineteen twenty six. This illustration
Speaker 1: features a corner of a solo apartment. Despite the title,
Speaker 1: it's not really focused on a table, although one is
Speaker 1: partially in the scene on the right side of the frame.
Speaker 1: It's a high contrast black and white image that conveys
Speaker 1: a stark, simple abode. It does not feel in any
Speaker 1: way joyous. It shows the strong influences of German Expressionism
Speaker 1: and the work of Vincent Van go Go, combining with Gog's
Speaker 1: own vision to create what would become her trademark style.
Speaker 1: She was a huge Vincent vanng Go fam borderline fangirl.
Speaker 1: Several years before that art supper Laid for One pub
Speaker 1: was printed, Wanda had already shown a good deal of
Speaker 1: disillusionment with New York and with the commercial art world
Speaker 1: that she felt compelled to participate in to continue to
Speaker 1: support the Gog family. She wrote in her journal quote,
Speaker 1: I do not want to live in the restless, hectic, busy,
Speaker 1: busy life for which Americans are noted. I want to
Speaker 1: sort of ramble through life, not lazily, for I must
Speaker 1: be active to be happy. I want to read and
Speaker 1: study and work hard and live, but I do not
Speaker 1: want to always feel myself rushing along in pursuit of money.
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty three, Wanda had a solo show, her
Speaker 2: first at the New York Public Libraries branch on ninety
Speaker 2: sixth Street. It ran from February fifteenth to April first,
Speaker 2: and featured a mix of drawings for adults and children,
Speaker 2: totaling forty pieces. It got really positive attention. One of
Speaker 2: the attendees was well known theatrical and industrial designer Norman Belgetti's,
Speaker 2: who liked that Gog's work was original and not derivative.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he apparently gave her some words of encouragement at
Speaker 1: the show. After the New York show, Wanda reassessed her situation.
Speaker 1: She was worn out with living in New York and
Speaker 1: she really wanted a solace. And fortunately she had kept
Speaker 1: the family afloat long enough that her siblings had aged
Speaker 1: up to the point where they could all work and
Speaker 1: take care of themselves. So she took advantage of the
Speaker 1: breathing room that shift afforded her, and she moved to
Speaker 1: Connecticut for a reset, living out in the country for
Speaker 1: almost a year, except for going back to New York
Speaker 1: for the winter. Throughout her art career up to this point,
Speaker 1: she had been frustrated any time she had to draw
Speaker 1: what someone else directed, whether that was in school or
Speaker 1: for her commercial work. And in Connecticut she drew and
Speaker 1: painted for herself, producing a large volume of work in
Speaker 1: a relatively short time. One of the innovative things she
Speaker 1: tried during this time was drawing on sandpaper using a
Speaker 1: lithographic crayon. The resulting drawing could be used to make prints,
Speaker 1: sort of the way you'd make prints from a lithography stone.
Speaker 1: She experimented with this technique throughout her career, after this,
Speaker 1: moving on from the lithography crayon to a brush and ink,
Speaker 1: noting that she had to be careful when using the
Speaker 1: brush because quote, it is easy to get a mussy drawing.
Speaker 1: She had a second show at the ninety six Street
Speaker 1: New York Public Library branch in the spring of nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty four, which showed work she had done with this technique.
Speaker 1: Then she went back to the Connecticut countryside. The following year.
Speaker 1: She had nineteen pieces selected to be shown at the
Speaker 1: Way A Gallery. I'm not sure if that's how you
Speaker 1: pronounce it. I can't seem to find a good pronunciation,
Speaker 1: and it is a defunct gallery, so we'll never know
Speaker 1: unless somebody in the audience knows and you can tell me,
Speaker 1: but it'll be too late too for this show that
Speaker 1: was curated by gallery director Carl Zigrosser. Ziggrosser was able
Speaker 1: to very quickly sell several of the pieces, and Wanda,
Speaker 1: elated to have sold art that she had created strictly
Speaker 1: through her own inspiration, wrote of the sales quote, it
Speaker 1: made me happy to think that I had been able
Speaker 1: to get money for the things I really like to
Speaker 1: do that doesn't happen often enough. In nineteen twenty six,
Speaker 1: Zigrosser gave her a solo show at the gallery. The
Speaker 1: reviews of that nineteen twenty six show were largely very positive,
Speaker 1: with The New York Post calling it quote an alluring
Speaker 1: exhibition that is hard to leave.
Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty seven, Wanda published an essay titled a
Speaker 2: Hotbed of Feminists. Possibly because of that essay, Wanda had
Speaker 2: put into motions something that would really shift her life
Speaker 2: in a significant way. We will talk about that shift
Speaker 2: in part two. In Listener Mail today, we have an
Speaker 2: email about the box car Children. We have a few
Speaker 2: I'm going to get through them.
Speaker 1: I swear. This is from our listener, an who writes
Speaker 1: Dear Holly and Tracy. I just had to write in
Speaker 1: about The box Car Children. I appreciated learning about the
Speaker 1: author on the Friday Behind the Scenes episode. You were
Speaker 1: wondering about whether they might not have been popular in
Speaker 1: the South. I can confirm that in the mid eighties,
Speaker 1: by elementary school in a metro Atlanta suburb had quite
Speaker 1: a few of The Box Car Children books. My second
Speaker 1: grade teacher read The box Car Children aloud to our class,
Speaker 1: and I loved it. As a kid who always enjoyed
Speaker 1: playing house, the idea of kids playing house in a
Speaker 1: box car in the woods, but for real, with no
Speaker 1: adults or anything, was captivating to me. I later checked
Speaker 1: one or two of the other books out of the
Speaker 1: school library, but since they didn't live on their own
Speaker 1: in the box car anymore, it just wasn't the same,
Speaker 1: so I didn't continue the series, despite the fact that
Speaker 1: I loved mystery stories and it would have been around
Speaker 1: the same time I was making my way through the
Speaker 1: entire Nancy Drew series. Thanks as always for the excellent podcast,
Speaker 1: and this reminded me to talk about two things. One
Speaker 1: I didn't mention it's a spoiler if nobody's if somebody
Speaker 1: hasn't read The box Car Children. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the first book, so if you haven't read it,
Speaker 1: you know, want to be spoiled, jump out. Now it's fine.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the first book, they get
Speaker 1: the box car back, like they get to keep it
Speaker 1: in the backyard and use it as a playhouse, so
Speaker 1: it stays part of their lives, but it's not where
Speaker 1: they live anymore. The other thing that is funny is that,
Speaker 1: like Anne, I feel like there's some magical window that
Speaker 1: some people hit where you're simultaneously reading like The box
Speaker 1: Car Children, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Trixie Buildin
Speaker 1: and I was blazing through all of those at the
Speaker 1: same time.
Speaker 2: So when she mentioned she was also reading Nancy Drew,
Speaker 2: it was a lovely memory of youth.
Speaker 1: So thank you, Anne. If you would like to write
Speaker 1: to us, you can do so at History Podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com. You can also subscribe to the show
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.
Speaker 2: Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of
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Speaker 2: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.