Born in 1857, John Raught was a native of Dunmore, Pennsylvania. At the age of 24, he enrolled in the Academy of Design in New York City. He then went on to study abroad at the Academie Julien in Paris, remaining in Europe for seven years. Upon his return to the United States, he opened a studio in New York for several years before returning to live in Dunmore. He primarily painted landscapes of Scranton and the local area, and the Everhart Museum has the largest public collection of Raught's work.

Raught's work demonstrates a turning point in American art from realistic painting to impressionistic techniques, inspired by the artists in Paris. His famous paintings of the region's coal breakers marked a change from natural scenes to industrial ones. Raught was a member of the Salmagundi Art Club in New York City, a prestigious organization that included such members as N.C. Wyeth, Charles Dana Gibson, Childe Hassam, Howard Pyle, and William Merritt Chase.