Wanda Gag (1893-1946) Birthday Anniversary

by Jim Graupner, with Jim Aufderheide

Although Wanda Gag, the famous New Ulm author, illustrator and artist, was actually born on 11 March 1893, she didn't make it into Emma Aufderheide Boock's Sands of Time until March 12th., so we'll take that as our cue to celebrate the Aufderheide family connection to this remarkably creative family, today. [Photo Portrait: Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society]

Wanda Hazel Gag was the oldest of seven children born to Anton and Elizabeth "Lissi" Biebl Gag. Her father was described by Gwenyth Swain, author of "Wanda Gag: Storybook Artist," as "Wanda's tall, artistic-looking" and her mother as "birdlike," who worked alongside her husband in a photography studio in their home. Lissi had taken an assistant position in Anton's studio, while in her teens, ca. 1888, an action that was a bit unusual because women mostly were employed as teachers, maids, cooks or seamstresses. Additionally, Wanda's biographer, Gwenyth Swain, wrote that most women, raised Catholic, "never" worked on Sundays, when many portraits were taken.

"Wanda Gag was born and spent her early years in the small building on the alley behind 301 North Minnesota. The building is still there. That is pretty well-documented, and pictures exist that show the building when Anton and his family lived there." Swain wrote about the humble beginnings of the Gag family by describing Wanda's "first home, between a saloon [301 North Minnesota] and a blacksmith shop [305 North Minnesota, where Christian Fr. Boock's blacksmith shop and wagon works was located; see Footnotes 1 & 2] in the small German town of New Ulm..." Wilhelmine Boock and her large family conceivably would have known the young Gag family, living next to them. By 1894, Anton Gag built a new house on North Washington, a few blocks away, in which he located his photographic studio.

[1. Observation by Jim Aufderheide 13 March 2007.]
[2. Jim Aufderheide, New Ulm, did some groundwork today, 15 March 2007, and took a photo of the existing building in which Wanda Gag was born, located on the same block as Christian Frederick Boock's Wagonworks and Blacksmith Shop. You can identify C. F. Boock's building in this 1913 Sanborn Map at 305 North Minnesota. The first Gag house is the pink set-back building on the corner of 3rd St. N. and the alley. The 1894 Gag House, now the Gag Museum, was located 2 1/2 blocks to the West on North Broadway.]

[Anton Gag Photo, from: Julie L'Enfant, The Gag Family," Afton Historical Society Press, 2002]


[Photo Portrait by Anton Gag, Lissi Biebl (left) and her sisters. jfg collection]
The Aufderheide family came to know the Gags and Biebls (Lissi's family) because the Biebls lived near the Aufderheide brickyard property. The Biebl sisters were hired by Elise Aufderheide as kitchen helpers in her busy household at the brickyard, which regularly served lunch to the large number of workers that Fred Aufderheide employed.

Cherished paintings, drawings, toys, and wicker benches rendered by Anton Gag, Wanda, Wanda's sister, Flavia or by the Biebl brothers, have been passed on from the Aufderheide family to their children and grandchildren. Perhaps Hertha Aufderheide Gieseke, youngest of Fred and Elise's children was most intimately involved with Wanda and Flavia because she, also, was interested in art and painting.

[Painting above: Signed, 1906 still life by Anton Gag, gift to Emma Aufderheide. Photo: Hertha Aufderheide Gieseke, daughter Carol, and niece Gertrude Boock on a wicker bench, perhaps made by the Biebl boys. The bench was located on the three lots between the Gieseke and the Herman Aufderheide homes on Minnesota Street.]

In 1983, Gertrude Boock Graupner and Carol Gieseke Baer wrote their recollections of their visits to their Grandparent's (Fred and Elise Aufderheide) brickyard home in New Ulm, when they were young. The following are exerpts from those writings and there are two videos by Gertrude: 1; 2.

Gertrude Graupner:

Afternoons in the summer, when weather permitted, at three o'clock, a lunch and coffee was served in the garden, just for the immediate family or friends visiting. One such afternoon I remember well. Two of Grandma's [Elise] hired girls were the Biebl girls who lived nearby on the Minnesota River with three brothers. They were the aunts of Wanda Gag, New Ulm's famous author and illustrator of children's books. She was a friend of Aunt Hertha and had brought sister flavia along from New York for a visit in their hometown. Flavia was close to Norb's [Gertrude's brother] age and mine. she showed us how to make parachutes out of handkerchieves and we, in turn, showed her the thrill of rolling down an incline in a big tile. She got her hand under the tile, and when we turned 0n the windmill pump to wash off the blood and the icy water hit the wound, she fainted. We got a talking-to for being so reckless!

Carol Gieseke Baer:

Since I was the second youngest grandchild of the Fred Aufderheides, I was only two when Grandpa [Fred] died and not quite five when Grandma [Eliese] passed away, my recollections of them and the brickyard are few.

Wanda Gag was a girlhood chum of Mother [Hertha] who would stop for a nice visit when she came from New York to visit her relatives. She had become a famous artist and author of children's literature.



She gave me autographed copies of her books "Millions of Cats" and "The Funny Thing." One time I recall having to sit very still on our kitchen table while Wanda sketched me. I still have the sketch done on tablet paper. Mother kept corresponding with Wanda until Wanda's death at about age sixty, and then corresponded with her sister Flavia until her death in 1978. Flavia also wrote children's books and sent copies to Mother. "Chubby's First year" is an autographed copy "to Hertha, a faithful and enduring friend." "Fourth Floor Menagerie" and "Tweeter of Prairie Dog Town" were autographed and sent "to Pamela Jean Baer" our daughter who was a child when Flavia wrote the books. Wanda's single uncles and Aunt Lena Biebl lived on the old Biebl homestead near the brickyard. Frank Biebl made a play merry-go-round for me with his pocket knife and some old tobacco cans. Mother often had him repair furniture for us.