Betty Ring (1923–2014)

A scholar and collector of 18th and early 19th century American schoolgirl needlework and an expert on the subject of early American needlework. Betty Ring is the foremost scholar and collector of American schoolgirl embroidery. The definitive reference book in the field is her two-volume work, Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers and Pictorial Needlework, 1650-1850, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993.

The Ring Collection is without question the most important and celebrated assemblage of these remarkable examples of American decorative arts and American folk art in private hands and represents Mrs. Ring's near 50-years of research, scholarship and connoisseurship in the field of girlhood embroidery.