Tennessee-based Hatch Show Print celebrates 145 years in the art of printmaking

There's something meditative about setting a design, gliding black ink along a metal press and turning crank daily creating new art.

For Jennifer Bronstein, it's been her daily routine for more than 16 years at Hatch Show Print.

In the modern era of digital media and instant gratification, doing something the old fashioned way is a novelty. At Hatch Show Print, though, it’s so much more than that. It’s one of the country’s oldest letterpress shops (and likely the largest) founded in 1879 by brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch, who learned the trade from their father William, who ran a print shop in Wisconsin before moving the family to Nashville in 1875.

"It's calming... You definitely get into a rhythm," Bronstein said. "You can feel the cylinder making the impression on the type as you roll it through."

They don't make many companies like Hatch Show Print anymore, especially in Nashville.

It's always satisfying when Bronstein sees a job through from start to finish with a client in a old school approach lost by many companies who have opted for digital production, she said. If all goes right, Bronstein said she can produce a full project with hundreds of printed posters from start to finish in five to seven days.

“It’s kind of ridiculous that in the 21st century we have a shop full of people working with their hands and creating these 2-D objects – posters and prints – using a really outdated technology,” says Celene Aubry, director and manager at Hatch Show Print. “In letterpress printing, you print one color at a time on one piece of paper at a time, using hand-set wood and metal type, so all the letters are individual letters. The images are made using hand-carved images on a photo plate. It’s the way we’ve done things since the shop has opened.”

Add to that the step of mixing their own colors, and it’s a time-consuming endeavor, but for the artists who work at Hatch, it’s a labor of love. They also use and maintain vintage letterpresses, which are kept in good shape by being used often.

You've likely seen Hatch Show Print products around Nashville, even across the country and the world with clients in multiple states and the United Kingdom.

Hatch made posters for various entertainers, but it's also made ads for Nashville businesses like coffee roasters, candy and even shoe stores, with catchy graphic designs. When Charles’ son, William took over the shop in the early 1920s, Hatch Show Print’s golden age began. William was a master woodblock carver and created posters for some of country music’s most legendary performers. He made posters for Grand Ole Opry performances and jazz and blues artists like Bessie Smith and Duke Ellington. Hatch Show Print was located directly behind the Ryman Auditorium, and in 2013 it found a permanent home inside the Country Music Hall of Fame. It has made posters for every performance that’s ever been held on stage at the Ryman.

“The imagery is really what caught people’s eye. Artists would come to the shop and they’d be able to take their press kit photos and turn them into these colorful posters that could be printed by the thousands, so when they went on the road, they could send the posters ahead of time to advertise the performances,” Aubry said. “Folks got to know what the stars looked like that they’d been listening to on the radio every Saturday night and got familiar with the look of a Hatch advertisement, and that continued to parlay itself into jobs that kept the business going.”

Hatch Show Print’s very first print job was a handbill announcing an appearance by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother.) Soon, their posters developed a signature look and covered the sides of buildings in cities and towns from coast to coast. The posters and handbills were the best way to advertise and fill seats, be it for a circus or a tent revival.

“Right out of the gate there was a need for large format advertising for live entertainment because, at that point, there’s no electricity, there’s no TV, movies, none of that,” Aubry said. “Most entertainment was live and in-person, whether it was on your front porch, a local theater, a tent or the high school auditorium.”

More: Decades of iconic concert posters designed by Hatch Show Print

Hatch has made posters for pro wrestlers, rock stars, food packaging, postage stamps, engagement announcements, wedding invitations and everything in between. Its move from lower Broadway in 2013 was partially prompted by a need for more space to accommodate the 500-600 unique designs they produce each year, as well as a way to embrace its history.

“As digital technology made it easy for digital design to speed up the process of commercial printing, folks in Nashville in the entertainment business wanted to continue to work with the shop because it was easy and straightforward,” Aubry said. “By the same token, people wanted something they could touch and feel, and there was a collective yearning for something we can interact with. A cell phone is great for carrying all the information that it does, but it’s not as fun as looking at a poster that reminds you of the night out you had with your friends or the night you got engaged.”

Today, Hatch Show Print welcomes over 100,000 visitors to the shop for tours, where they can watch the shop’s designer-printers in action, see the archives, where a century and a half of poster art is on display, and even print their own keepsake poster. The shop will make a special poster on April 9 (its official anniversary) that will commemorate its 145th birthday and will be printed on that day only.

“We do tours almost every day, and you’ll get to print the final layer of a commemorative print that’s new for the year. We are doing a bunch of block parties for those who want to get more immersed, where participants can print on t-shirts or totes or towels. This year we’re hoping to do more workshops where people can learn to typeset or carve their own block,” Aubry said. “Hatch has weathered so many different technological storms and changes in how people spend leisure time. In its 145 years of existence, it has inspired so many folks. We have a very strong community across the board.”

Hatch Show Print

www.hatchshowprint.com

615-577-7710

224 Rep. John Lewis Way S., Nashville 37203

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Letterpress printing still a thrill to watch, see and do at Hatch Show