Happy Birthday Hatch Show Print!

Yesterday, the staff of Hatch Show Print celebrated the shop’s 145th anniversary, which takes place today, Friday, April 12. Founded by brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch, Hatch Show Print opened in Nashville in 1879. For much of the 20th century, the shop’s vibrant posters served as a leading advertising medium for Southern entertainment. Hatch Show Print produced posters for many members of the Grand Ole Opry, such as Bill Monroe, Minnie Pearl and Ernest Tubb, as well as a variety of performers from across the musical spectrum, including Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Bessie Smith. Thousands of posters and billboard-size advertisements were printed for traveling vaudeville and minstrel shows, circuses and carnivals across the country. In 1992, Hatch Show Print became property of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Today, Hatch Show Print is a thriving letterpress poster and design shop located within the museum. The shop creates and prints 700 to 900 different posters every year for clients ranging from Gillian Welch, Guns N’ Roses, Willie Nelson and Yola to organizations such as the NFL, Taschen Books and the U.S. Postal Service.

Visitors to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum are able to add on a hands-on Hatch Show Print Tour, where they learn about the letterpress print shop’s history, get a behind-the-scenes look at the show-poster creation process and hand-print their own souvenir letterpress poster.

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