A Visit to Hatch Show Print

Posted by: Jocelyn Edin

While on a quick weekend trip to Nashville this past weekend, I happened upon Hatch Show Print, one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in the country. What a wonderful, colorful, historical treat it was! There was only a small space for retail and huge crowd of tourists herding through (such as myself), so I couldn't stay long. Fortunately, the web is full of info and imagery to satisfy my craving for more.

Hatch was founded in Nashville in 1879 by the Hatch brothers Charles and Herbert. The early work was focused on posters for vaudeville, the circus, and minstrel shows, but grew and flourished for the country music scene. Here's their own historical write-up. You can feel the span of time and experience in the space. Posters from all sorts of genres cover the walls, and in the back of the shop are ceiling-high shelves of letterpress type libraries. This video tells all.

What I found most intriguing was the feel of the printing. It's smooth, layered, never perfect, very much like silkscreen. I'm so used to seeing the very debossed feel of letterpressed invitations and cards (such as this), I hadn't spent much time thinking about or searching out early letterpress imagery. Shame on me! It's so visually rich and tasty.

Letterpress is getting lots of attention these days. In this hugely digital world, people are attracted to things that are tactile, handmade, or appear handmade. Old styles become new again, but of course if it's really good (like Hatch Show Print) it never goes away.

 

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