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Hatch Show Print's Rock 'n' Roll Posters
December 19, 2003-June 13, 2004
The National Heritage Museum presented more than 20 distinctive, colorful letterpress posters by Nashville's Hatch Show Print in the exhibition, "Hatch Show Print's Rock 'n' Roll Posters," on view December 19, 2003 through June 13, 2004. Since August 1955, when long-time customer Colonel Tom Parker commissioned a Hatch Show Print poster for a concert that included Elvis Presley, the company has been central to rock and roll promotion. Best known for its retro style of design featuring woodcut images and bold type, Hatch continues to produce lively posters for all kinds of musicians ranging from Johnny Cash to Frank Zappa, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, and Pearl Jam, to name a few.
In 1879, brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch started their print shop in Nashville, providing short-run printing of labels, stationery and posters. When Charles's son Will T. took over the business in 1924, the shop continued to grow as a specialty printer of posters and handbills for vaudeville, circus, and carnival and minstrel shows. Many of these posters were printed from woodblocks designed and carved by Will and his staff.
Changes in printing technology, combined with Will T.'s death in 1952, forced Hatch Show Print to scramble to provide less expensive posters by capitalizing on their vast inventory of wood type that worked well with photo plates. These smaller posters--window cards and half-sheets--provided entertainers with a bold look and colorful advertising presentation. This basic formula is still incorporated by Hatch's staff working today.
Operated since 1992 by the non-profit Country Music Foundation, Hatch continues to take over 600 jobs annually, producing posters for a variety of performers. The original posters seen in the exhibition reveal that Hatch's blend of old-fashioned design elements, traditional technology, and modern aesthetics still sells. A poster specially designed by Hatch to accompany the National Hertage Museum's exhibition "Artist to Icon" is available for sale in the museum's Heritage Shop.
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