Raymond DeLucia was a lifelong collaborator with the American Museum of Natural History. He began with the museum as a diorama artist after completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Yale in 1938. He also worked at the museum as a lecturer and a special consultant. After his retirement, he was named the first chief perpetrator emeritus of the AMNH.

DeLucia was passionate about the ocean, collecting scrimshaw, sea captain log books, model ships and maritime art. He was an authority on whales and the history of the American whaling industry. In 1969, he made a 16mm film documenting finback whaling practices as part of his activism as a whale conservationist.