Catherine Buttery Hollan has been researching, writing, and lecturing on American silver since the 1980s. Her latest book is Hidden Treasures: Re-Assessing South Carolina Silversmiths to 1861, which is being celebrated with a special exhibition of the same title at The Charleston Museum January-March 2022.

In the late 1980s she began working with the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Old Salem, North Carolina, on the illustrated Virginia Silversmiths, the Branching of the Trade,  publication delayed. In 1994 she wrote the catalog and curated the exhibition In the Neatest Most Fashionable Manner: Three Centuries of Alexandria Silver for The Lyceum in Alexandria, Virginia. She published Virginia Silversmiths~ Lives and Marks in 2010, Philadelphia Silversmiths to 1861 in 2013, Eagle Marks in 2015, and a short lookup Virginia and West Virginia Silversmiths to 1900 in 2017. She was moderator and presenter of the Silver Seminar Saturday Series at the Museum of Early American Decorative Arts (MESDA) in 2012 and 2014. Her next project is silversmiths of Georgetown and Washington, DC.

Catherine graduated from Goucher College with a B.A. in English and math minor, and from Georgetown University with an M.S. in computational linguistics. She developed computerized search tools at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and retired as the manager of their Public Search Rooms in 2003. Since then she has enjoyed more time to research southern silversmiths. 

Catherine is president of the American Silver Guild, a special interest group of collectors and curators based in the Washington, D.C. area. She lives in McLean, Virginia.

Curated or consulted on silver and exhibitions at:
       •  The Charleston Museum
  • ​The Lyceum
  • Museum of the Shenandoah Valley

Published books or articles include:
  • Hidden Treasures: Re-Assessing South Carolina Silversmiths to 1861
  • Virginia and West Virginia Silversmiths and Related Artisans to 1900
  • Eagle Marks on American Silver
  • Philadelphia Silversmiths and Related Artisans to 1861
  • Virginia Silversmiths, Jewelers, Clock- and Watchmakers 1607 to 1860, Their Lives and Marks


  • In the Neatest Most Fashionable Manner, Three Centuries of Alexandria Silver
  • "Baltimore Apprenticeships in Silversmithing," Silver in Maryland, Maryland Historical Society
  • "Of the Latest Style, Silver at MESDA," Magazine Antiques
  • "Skippets, Diplomatic Silver Boxes," 48th Washington Antiques Show Catalog
  •  several in Silver Magazine
  •  several in  Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts

Lectured at: 
  • 60th Colonial Williamsburg Antique Forum
  • Winterthur Museum, Silver Symposium American Silver of the Early 19th Century
  • Third Henry D. Green Symposium in the Decorative Arts, Georgia Museum of Art
  • Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA)
  • South Carolina Silver Society 
  • Colonial Dames, Dumbarton House
  • Colonial Dames, Gunston Hall
  • Washington Decorative Arts Forum
  • Antiquarian Society, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
  • Decorative Arts Trust Forum
  • Alexandria Association