Ramsdell studied in New York at the Art Students League with James Carroll Beckwith and later in Paris with the artist R. Collin. Ramsdell spent several years in Europe traveling between France and Italy. He exhibited at the Paris Salon between in the early 1890s, between 1891 and 1894 and then again in 1897 and 1898. After returning to America he got wind of the artist’s colony in Old Lyme, possibly through Beckwith who had family ties to the area. He started exhibiting at the Old Lyme Art Association as soon as he arrived in Old Lyme in 1907 and continued to show there until 1915.