The collection comes from descendants of Wanda Gag’s younger sister Stella Gag. Wanda Gag had six siblings, and each received a collection of art after she died. BCHS research librarian Darla Gebhard said they’ve known about this collection for around 40 years.

“We had a small Gag art exhibit of paintings by Wanda and her father Anton,” she said. “We invited the Harm family to come down to look at the exhibit. That’s when we met Dolly and Gary Harm. Wanda’s sister Stella moved down to Florida [with the collection] after she retired. When Gary’s mother Stella died down in Florida, they moved all of these Anton Gag paintings and a lot of Stella’s share of Wanda’s prints back up to Minnesota.”

When the BCHS did Gag exhibitions, the Harm family would often loan pieces from their collection to be displayed. After Gary Harm’s death, discussions between the historical society and the Harm estate furthered. In these discussions, Gebhard said Gary Harm’s son John believed New Ulm was where the pieces belonged. The Harm Estate gave the BCHS and Wanda Gag House the first opportunity to purchase the collection.

Collections Curator Ryan Harren said the collection isn’t solely pieces from Wanda. There are also confirmed pieces from her father Anton and sisters Flavia and Stella Gag. While it is unconfirmed, Harren and Gebhard believe some of the childhood drawings could have been done by Wanda’s brother Howard.

With some of the more delicate pieces, Harren needed to don protective gloves. The painting he carried in was an Anton Gag neither he nor Gebhard knew existed.

“Some of the childhood drawings are very much something a little boy would draw like racing cars and bikes,” Gebhard said. “You look at that and you think ‘Was Wanda drawing airplanes and cars?’ No, probably Howard doodling. Howard was a woodcutter, much like his grandfather. He also did a lot of print work for one of his books. They were all artistic.”

Gebhard said what surprised her the most about this collection were the drawings done by several of the Gag children. Given the early 20th century time period the Gag children grew up in, Gebhard said these pieces surviving to this day is remarkable.

“It amazes me this family had the foresight,” she said. “Who is hanging on to what you drew when you were three? They kept it. She at a very, very young age wrote her initials down, W.G. At the time, they didn’t know she was going to become this famous but she’s dating and signing everything.”

Even given the massive size and diversity of this collection, Gebhard knows there are still many collections out there. She said she never fools herself into thinking there isn’t another stash someplace waiting to be discovered. Gebhard said an Anton Gag painting being unearthed in 2021 reaffirmed this belief.

“I’m at church one night and the minister comes up to me,” she said. “He says ‘Come into my office.’ I thought ‘Lord, what have I done?’ He’s taking me into his office. He says ‘Is this an antique Gag?’ I looked at the initial A.G. and said ‘Yes, Where did it come from? They have taken it out of the altar of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in the 50s when they remodeled the church, wrapped it up in brown paper, and stuck it in the furnace room.”

NUHS Gag: Repping her high school over 100 years ago, Wanda Gag sketched this drawing of a girl holding a New Ulm High School banner sometime in the early 1910’s. Gebhard said all seven of the Gag children graduated high school, a rarity in those times.

Gebhard said she feels the endeavor has been a success. For the legacy and historical preservation of Wanda Gag, along with helping benefit the BCHS and Wanda Gag House, Gebhard said the possibilities are endless.

“I can see many different good things that can come from it,” she said. “There’s research that can be done, exhibits, publishing. If you want to do something on the art or conservation of this; to say you have this collection entrusted to you by the family can help bring in dollars from grants.”

Currently, all of the pieces reside within the BCHS building. A couple are on display in their museum’s What’s New section, but there are no immediate plans to do a focused exhibit. Harren said the museum has recently done three cycles of Gag artwork exhibitions and a break is needed to prevent becoming repetitive. Gebhard said the collection would get its day in the spotlight when the time is right.

Separate from this collection, the BCHS also recently received an archive of manuscripts and documents written by Gag family members. Most notable among them is a full diary written by Wanda Gag’s sister Flavia. These items can be viewed by making an appointment with the research library.