degree in painting from Boston University, and took his first intaglio printing class with Sidney Jack Hurwitz [Wikidata].
[4] He credits Stanley William Hayter and his proteges in Atelier 17 as an influence, and the collection of Charles Randall Dean as a guide, before its acquisition by the Library of Congress.
[3] In 2004, Raftery's work was featured in Jonathan Weinberg’s book, Male Desire: The Homoerotic in American Art.
[5] Raftery helped contribute to the 2009 publishing of the RISD Museum exhibition catalog, The Brilliant Line: Following the Early Modern Engraver, 1480-1650 alongside Emily J. Peters and Evelyn Lincoln (of Brown University).
[8][9] From that year until 2012, Raftery assisted in research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the wear of engraved copper plates through printing, necessary for more confident dating of historical prints; this required using a traditional hammered copper plate and lozenge-shaped burin for the first time in his career.