Having studied under John H. Vanderpoel, Buehr graduated with honors, while his work aroused such admiration that he was offered a teaching post there, which he maintained for many years thereafter.
In 1904, Buehr received a bronze medal at the St. Louis Universal Exposition, then, in 1905, Buehr and his family moved to France, thanks to a wealthy Chicago patron, and they spent the following year in Taormina, Sicily, where the artist painted local subjects, executing both genre subjects and landscapes as well as time in Venice.
He remained for some time in Giverny, and here he became well-acquainted with other well known expatriate America impressionists such as Richard Miller, Theodore Earl Butler, Frederick Frieseke, and Lawton Parker.
One of his noted pupils at the Art Institute was Archibald Motley, Jr. the famous African American "Harlem" Renaissance painters.
He won a silver medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and the Purchase Prize of the Chicago Municipal Art Commission in the following year.
He began a first sergeant in the first camouflage section of the U.S. Army Engineers during World War I and was awarded the active service medal.
He wanted children in the Midwest to be able to understand the terms used in stories about the sea, how the ships were rigged, how they operated, what the life of a sailor was like, etc.
Farming Our Forests, 1960 Treasure: The Story of Money and Its Safeguarding, 1955 Trucks and Trucking, 1957 Underground Riches, The Story of Mining, 1958 The Viking Explorers, 1968 - TruthQuest Volcano!, 1962 Warriors Weapons (adult), 1963 Water, Our Vital Need, 1967 Westward with American Explorers, 1963 - TruthQuest When Towns Had Walls, Life in a Medieval English Town, 1970 Wonder Worker, The Story of Electricity, 1961 World Beneath the Waves, 1964 The World of Marco Polo, 1961 - TruthQuest Books Illustrated by Walter Buehr: Adventures on the Cloud 9, by Adelaide Field The First Book of the Ocean, by Sam & Beryl Epstein Mary, Queen of Scots, by Emily Hahn (Landmark series) - TruthQuest Moon Base, by William Nephew