An American paintings conservator trained in Berlin, William Suhr worked under Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner at the Detroit Institute of Arts beginning in 1927, and was the conservator of the Frick Collection from 1935 to 1977. He also maintained private clients including individuals and major American museums in Cleveland, New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Louis. After World War II he worked closely with clients active in the New York art market, particularly the dealer Rosenberg and Stiebel. The bulk of the collection is comprised of photographs of paintings treated by Suhr, along with his treatment notes. The collection also contains business papers, including correspondence, articles about Suhr, personal papers, and documentation of Suhr's own artwork.

William Suhr was born in Kreutzberg, Germany on March 31, 1896. His parents were U.S. citizens; his paternal grandfather had emmigrated to the United States from Germany in 1850. During his twenties Suhr's father went to Vienna seeking treatment for incipient deafness and to pursue his acting career. When he became completely deaf he gave up acting and stayed on in Germany. As a youth, Suhr acted in the same theatrical company as his mother. When he showed artistic promise as a teenager, he was apprenticed to a stonemason for three years. He then studied painting at the Royal Art Academy in Berlin. It was in Berlin, at the age of 20, that he met the art historian Max Deri, who introduced him to the restoration of painting. At that time there were no schools for restoration; it was a family business and methods were kept secret. Deri gave Suhr a panel to restore along with some advice on how to do it. Soon Suhr was very active as a restorer in Berlin, where the art historian Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner noticed him in the early 1920's. Valentiner became Director of the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1924. In 1927 Suhr accepted his offer of the job of restorer of paintings. The letter with this offer is in the archive.

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