Self portrait of Ramsey Traquair, around 1860, from Miss Roberta MacIntosh's common place book.
The quiet and studious Ramsay was brought up in Edinburgh, having moved from Rhynd, Perthshire. An early interest in natural history and his discovery of a fossil fish was to influence his career. He studied medicine (which was a common route into the natural sciences), specialising in fish anatomy, at Edinburgh University, where he was a contemporary and friend of W. C. McIntosh, later Professor of Natural History at St. Andrews.
Traquair's friends said he had 'a simple and kindly nature which endeared him to all who knew him'. That he had a fine sense of humour is seen in the self-portrait sketch he made in Miss Roberta McIntosh's common-place book. Possibly this was drawn during the 1861 British Association expedition to Dura Den when a specimen of Holoptychius, 32 inches long, was discovered. Roberta was one of McIntosh's sisters, and an accomplished artist. Her exquisite coloured drawings adorn many of her brother's books.
Self portrait of Ramsey Traquair, around 1860, from Miss Roberta MacIntosh's common place book.
Traquair's research on fossil fish began while Professor of Zoology at the Royal College of Science, Dublin. It was there that he met and married talented artist Phoebe Anna Moss who illustrated his work. In 1873 he was appointed Keeper of Natural History at the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, where he built up one of the world's finest fossil fish collections. He carried out pioneering research on the distribution and classification of the Scottish Old Red Sandstone fish, including those from Dura Den. This work is included in Sir Archibald Geikie's Geology of EasternFife. Consequently Traquair was recognised as Britain's leading fossil fish expert, receiving the Royal Medal of London's Royal Society in 1907.