"Just now I want a chance to do what you have been doing all your life, working at a joyous creative thing, which I hope will pave the way for my being self-supporting. This may be too late for me – but I still want to try."

- Letty Esherick in a letter to Wharton Esherick, 1947

This song and sonic weave were created by Eliza Hardy Jones as part of the The Wharton Esherick Museum’s (WEM) new exhibition Working at a Joyous Creative Thing: Weaving, Making, and Material Culture in Letty Esherick’s Legacy, an exhibition highlighting Artist-in-Residence Kelly Cobb’s ongoing research and creative work at WEM.

Cobb has focused her research not on Wharton himself but on Leticia (Letty) Nofer Esherick, the dynamic artist, dancer, educator, and creative powerhouse whom Wharton married in 1912. While Wharton’s career was shaped in large part by Letty’s support – financial, intellectual, emotional, and otherwise – her own creative legacy has too often been overlooked. The letter excerpted above, written after her separation from Wharton and the raising of their children, reflects Letty’s intense desire for artistic recognition, creative opportunity, and economic independence.

The exhibition marks the first public presentation of Letty’s textiles in at least five decades. They are shown alongside new works by Cobb, as well as artworks across disciplines by a group of skilled collaborators that range from handmade garments to sound art to embroidery.