Ramsay, Edward Pierson (1842 - 1916)

Summary

Edward Ramsay was Curator of the Australian Museum 1874-1894 and was a consulting ornithologist 1894-1909. He was a founder of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in 1874 and played a prominent role in government zoological matters particularly fisheries.

Details

Born Dobroyd Estate, Long Cove, Sydney, 3 December 1842. Died Sydney, 16 December 1916. Educated University of Sydney (studied medicine 1863-65). Honorary LLD, St Andrews University, Scotland 1886. Collecting expedition for Rufous Scrub-Bird, Clarence and Richmond rivers 1866; Dobroyd New Plant and Seed Nursery 1867-68; owner, Iindah sugar plantation, Maryborough district, Queensland 1868 for several years; councillor, Australian Museum, Sydney 1874-94, where he added 17,600 skins, including the Dobroyd Collection made by him and his brothers, published a Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Australian Museum at Sydney in four parts 1876-94 and began publishing the Records of the museum in 1890; consulting ornithologist to the Museum 1895-1916. Trustee, Hyde, Phillip and Cook parks from 1878, trustee, Zoological Station, Watsons Bay from 1879. Founding treasurer, Entomological Society of New South Wales 1861; member, Philosophical Society (New South Wales) 1865; corresponding member, Zoological Society of London 1866; a founder, Linnean Society of New South Wales 1874. Member, Royal Commission on the Fisheries of New South Wales 1880; member, New South Wales Commission for the Melbourne International Exhibition 1880; Commissioner for New South Wales and Tasmania, International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883, receiving a gold medal and a diploma of honour; "Mitglied", Imperial Zoological and Botanical Society of Vienna 1883; Corresponding Member, Italian Anthropological Society 1883; Knight of the Crown of Italy 1884; medal for exhibits, Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886; life member, Royal Society of Edinburgh; member, Royal Irish Academy. As well as ornithology he worked in the areas of ichthyology, herpetology, mammalogy and botany.

A son, John Simeon Pierson Ramsay, became a well-known ornithologist, specialising in photography.

Chronology

1865 - 1866

Career position - Member, Philosophical Society of New South Wales

1874 - 1882

Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1874 - 1894

Career position - Curator, Australian Museum

1885 - 1890

Career position - Member of Council, Linnean Society of New South Wales

1895 - 1916

Career position - Consulting ornithologist, Australian Museum

Related entries

Archival resources

Australian Museum

• Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1880 - 1886, Series 134; Australian Museum. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1860 - 1912, ML MSS 563; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1862 - 1903, ML MSS 1589; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1865 - 1893, ML MSS 1370; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1862 - 1893, ML MSS 2278; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich von Mueller - Records, 1862 - 1873, ML MSS 562; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Gregory Macalister Mathews - Records, 1900 - 1949, MS 1465; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• John Gould - Records, 1838 - 1884, MS 454; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• John Gould - Records, 1888 - 1951, MS 1755; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Royal Society of New South Wales

• Edward Pearson Ramsay - Records, 1856 - 1865; Royal Society of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Book Sections

• Chisholm, A. H., 'Ramsay, Edward Pierson (1842-1916), ornithologist and zoologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 6: 1851 - 1890 R - Z, Bede Nairn, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976), pp. 3-4. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A060004b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Castelnau, le Comte de and Ramsay, E. P., 'Notes of a collection of birds from the Norman River, Gulf of Carpentaria, with descriptions of some new species', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 1 (1877), 379-95. Details
• Etheridge, R., 'Obituary Notice [Edward Pierson Ramsay]', Museum Records, 11 (1917), 204-17. Details
• Fulton, Graham R., 'Notes on the mammals collected on the Chevert Expedition, to New Guinea, in 1875', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 140 (2018), 1-6. http://escholarship.library.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/LIN. Details
• Fulton, Graham R., 'A detailed report on the birds collected on the Chevert Expedition to New Guinea, in 1875', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 143 (2021), 9-36. https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/LIN/article/view/15518. Details
• Ramsay, E. P., 'Zoology of the Chevert mammals, part 1', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 2 (1877), 7-19, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/LIN/issue/view/459. Details
• Ramsay, E. P., 'Zoology of the Chevert - ornithology, part II', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 3 (1) (1878), 100-16, https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/LIN/issue/view/460. Details
• Ramsay, E. P., 'Exploration of New Guinea: report on the collections', Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, New South Wales Branch, 3/4 (1888), 207-8. Details
• Turnbull, Paul, '"Ramsay's regime": the Australian Museum and the procurement of Aboriginal bodies, c. 1874 - 1900', Aboriginal history, 15 (2) (1991), 108-21. Details
• Turnbull, Paul, 'Australian museums, Aboriginal skeletal remains, and the imagining of human evolutionary history', Museum & society, 13 (1) (2015), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.29311/mas.v13i1.318. Pages 72-72, 78, 82. Details
• Whitley, G. P., 'A Survey of Australian Ichthyology', Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 89 (1964). Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q542265. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/43415183. Details
• 'Ramsay, E P (18421203-19161216)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-892345. Details

See also

• Finney, Vanessa, Capturing nature: early scientific photography at the Australian Museum 1857 - 1893 (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2019), 199 pp. Details
• Robin, Libby, The Flight of the Emu: a Hundred Years of Australian Ornithology 1901-2001 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2001), 492 pp. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details