Dr. Rossiter Worthington Raymond was born on April 27, 1840, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He was an American mining engineer, legal scholar, and author. He received his early education in Syracuse, New York, where his parents participated in the underground railroad. In 1858, he graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where his uncle, John H. Raymond (1814-1878) was president. He also attended the Royal Mining Academy, Freiberg, Saxony, University of Heidelberg, and University of Munich (1858-1861). Following the American Civil War, he entered private practice, forming the partnership of Adelberg & Raymond in 1864 in New York City. In 1867, Raymond started a 23-year career as editor of the American Journal of Mining (later renamed the Engineering and Mining Journal), becoming one of the most influential voices in American mining. From 1868 to 1875, he served as the U.S. Commissioner of Mines and gathered valuable mining statistics on the American West. As a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, he also served as its vice-president (1871, 1876, 1877), president (1872-1875), and secretary (1884-1911). From 1870 to 1872, he was the professor of ore deposits at Lafayette College, which in 1868 conferred upon him an honorary Ph.D. degree. In 1885, he became the New York State Commissioner of Electrical Subways. In 1898, he was admitted to the bar, and in 1903, he was appointed lecturer on mining law at Columbia University. Raymond wrote many poems, stories, newspaper articles, biographies, memorials, opinions, fiction, and non-fiction books. Unfortunately, most of his original work was destroyed by a fire.

In 1863, he married Sarah Mellen Dwight (1841–1921). He died on December 31, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York.