These types of silk embroideries featured figures near urn-topped pedestals, often set in gardens or cemeteries with weeping willows and angels.
In 1965, Ring traveled to Chapel Hill in North Carolina to visit Elizabeth Daniel, a dealer and collector of silk memorials.
[2] Ring traveled across the U.S. collecting needlework samplers, analyzing them, and researching genealogical records to trace 18th and 19th century schoolgirl embroidery.
[8] Ring's research showed that, rather than original creations, most samplers and silk embroidery followed patterns laid out by school mistresses for their students.
[8] Ring's research also revealed that needlework of that time had distinct styles or motifs that could be traced back to specific schools or teachers.
In addition to being a guest curator of the Rhode Island exhibit, she created the catalogue book, Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee (1983).