A Brief History of Hatch

If you follow music, art, and culture of the American South, sooner or later you're bound to run into the letters, images, and unmistakable "look" of Hatch Show Print. We're one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America, and over the years our posters have featured a host of country music performers, ranging from Country Music Hall of Famers Hank Williams, Bill Monroe, and Johnny Cash to contemporary stars such as Garth Brooks and Wynonna.

"Advertising without posters is like fishing without worms."
- The Hatch Brothers

We've done it all without losing that irresistible appeal of turn-of-the-century Hatch posters, which were used to promote vaudeville, circus, and minstrel shows across the country. There's a reason why music lovers, Americana buffs, graphic arts collectors and designers, and commercial advertisers of all persuasions continue to turn to Hatch for inspiration. We are, indeed, a tonic for the information age.

It started, naturally enough, with the Hatch family. William H. Hatch ran a print shop in the town of Prescott, Wisconsin, where his two sons, Charles R. and Herbert H. (born in 1852 and 1854, respectively), grew up and learned the craft of letterpress printmaking. In 1875, William moved his family to Nashville where, four years later, Charles and Herbert founded CR and HH Hatch.

From their very first print job—a handbill announcing the appearance of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe)—the Hatch brothers got the look right. Here was the simplicity, the effortless balance between type size and style, vertical and horizontal layout. Here, too, was the distinct whiff of American history, southern culture, and entertainment.

Hatch flourished, for these were the days when show business was get-up-and-go business. Show posters created the excitement that sold the show, covering the sides of buildings and barns in cities and towns throughout the country. Whether circus, minstrel show, vaudeville act, or carnival, if you wanted to fill seats, Hatch got the job done.

The golden age of Hatch was from the mid-1920s, when Charles's son Will T. Hatch took over the business, until Will's death in 1952. It was a golden era for country music as well, and Hatch captured the magic. Will frequently turned his talent as a master woodblock carver to "chiseling and gouging" (as someone once put it some of the most indelible images of country music performers ever made. To further secure the historic link, Hatch's home from 1925 to 1992 was right behind the Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music.

Hatch captured the glory of other musical genres, doing work for the great African-American jazz and blues entertainers of the day, such as Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong.

Just as eye-catching are the "bread and butter" posters that filled in the blanks during this time, the small jobs for filling stations, laundries, grocery stores, and movie theaters. This openness to the sheer breadth of southern culture and advertising helped Hatch Show Print survive the comparatively lean years that followed the death of Will Hatch. While letterpress printmakers found it hard to compete in the more modern, faster age of offset printmaking, Hatch could turn to country music and other "old faithfuls" for continued support, while embracing newer forms of entertainment such as all-star wrestling and rock & roll.

After various ownership changes, Gaylord Entertainment, parent company of the Grand Ole Opry, purchased Hatch Show Print in 1986, primarily because of the shop's long history of printing posters for stars of the Opry cast. About twenty percent of the Hatch collection was relocated to Gaylord's Opryland Theme Park, where one could have a single poster customized for you, the park visitor.

Soon Gaylord enlisted the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museumto help revive the historic poster shop. The Museum hired Jim Sherradan to curate the Hatch Show Print collection and oversee the shop's activity. He researched the history behind some of the great woodblocks and carefully re-struck them onto acid free art paper. Meanwhile, the shop still produced posters for local bands and started to become a popular stop on the Nashville tour.

When Hatch relocated to Broadway from a short distance in 1992, Gaylord donated the shop's full operation to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Gaylord should be thanked for their foresight and generosity. The Museum and Hatch have the same mandate of preserving the integrity of one of America's richest entertainment and graphic design treasures, as Hatch continues business in its third century of operation.