cityCURRENT Radio Show Host, Andrew Bartolotta, talks with Celene Aubry, Director and Shop Manager of Hatch Show Print Shop, one of Nashville’s oldest businesses and last remaining shop for the original Printers Alley. After joining the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992, learn how this once family owned business has evolved into a working museum, that continues to produce commercial work while leveraging the artistic skills and history of letterpress.
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, and included work for many members of the Grand Ole Opry such as Bill Monroe, Minnie Pearl and Ernest Tubb, and for rock & roll greats such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry.
Thousands of posters and billboard-size advertisements were printed for traveling vaudeville and minstrel shows, circuses and carnivals barnstorming across the country. In 1992, Hatch Show Print became a historic property of the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum.
Today, Hatch Show Print is a thriving letterpress poster and design shop in downtown Nashville, with seven full-time designer-printers on staff. The shop creates and prints 500 to 600 poster jobs every year for clients ranging from Mumford & Sons and Willie Nelson to brands such as Fossil, Taschen and the U.S. Postal Service.
For more information about tours or the history of the shop, visit HatchShowPrint.com.
