Hatch Show Print

​​The story of Hatch Show Print begins in 1875 when the Hatch family moved to Nashville. Four years later, brothers Charles and Herbert Hatch opened the C.R. & H.H. Hatch Printers shop on Fourth Avenue South. Their first poster was an advertisement for Henry Beecher, an early prohibitionist and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Hatch Show Print gained national fame for their posters—using a process of carved wood blocks and metal plates, inked and pressed by hand. From the 1890s to the 1930s, Hatch Show Print enjoyed a golden age as they emerged as Nashville’s go-to for all kinds of prints, even massive posters to cover the sides of buildings. As this form of manual pressing was replaced by newer print technology, Hatch Show Print survived. What was its secret? The Grand Ole Opry, which moved to the Ryman Auditorium in 1943. Hatch printed posters for the Opry as well as most of the other concerts, lectures, and shows held at the Ryman. 

​​While they have changed locations several times over the last 140+ years, Hatch Show Print remains one of the oldest and most successful working letterpress shops in the United States. The shop joined the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum complex in 2014, which is near their original 1875 location. Hatch still carves, designs, and presses hundreds posters for celebrities from Willie Nelson to The Black Keys. They also produce re-strikes, which are reproductions made from the original plates, of historic concert and event posters. There are many on display and for sale in the Haley Gallery as well as the Hatch Show Print gift shop. 

A key player in the shop’s modern evolution is Jim Sherraden, who managed Hatch Show Print from 1984 to 2013. Thanks to people like Sherraden, Hatch Show Print remains one of the few print shops that has sustained its traditional identity, even as it has adapted to modern forms of advertising and entertainment. Sherraden’s art is often featured in the Haley Gallery. Turn and walk back toward the door you entered. The art gallery is on your left. As an artist, Sherraden is known for stunning paper quilts, created with hand-carved wood blocks. The gallery also displays re-strikes from the Hatch Show Print collection as well as rotating exhibits of newer interpretive pieces.

Turn RIGHT out of Hatch Show Print and walk down Fifth Avenue South to the corner of Demonbreun. Cross Demonbreun and turn RIGHT. Just a few yards down, the main entrance to the Music City Walk of Fame Park is on your left.