Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop [Hardcover]

Paul Kingsbury (Author), Jim Sherraden (Author), Elek Horvath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

In this age of digital media, the handcrafted ethic and aesthetic of a Hatch Show Print poster is beyond compare. Country musicians and magicians, professional wrestlers and rock stars, all have turned to Nashville's historic Hatch Show Print to create showstopping posters. Established in 1879, Hatch preserves the art of traditional printing that has earned a loyal following to this day (including the likes of Beck, Emmylou Harris, and the Beastie Boys). Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop is the first fully illustrated tour of this iconic print shop and also chronicles the long life and large cast of employees, entertainers, and American legends whose histories are intertwined with it. Complete with 190 illustrations--as well as a special book jacket that unfolds to reveal an original Hatch poster on the reverse--Hatch Show Print is a dazzling document of this legendary institution.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers bleary and exhausted from the ceaseless hard sell of contemporary advertising will be refreshed and entertained by this loving and lavish look at a world of advertising that, if no less commercial, is certainly easier on the eye. Since 1879, when it was founded by the brothers for which it is named, Nashville's Hatch Show Print Shop has produced using handcrafted letterpress methods clearly explained in the text an astounding variety of posters and ephemera advertising everything from trailers to state fairs, wrestling matches to circuses, Roberto Duran to Dwight D. Eisenhower. But most of the work reproduced here in 190 lush color and b&w illustrations is devoted to announcements of musical events (unsurprising, given the shop's location), from Hank Williams to Bo Diddley, Emmylou Harris to Buddy Guy. Visual highlights include a strikingly vivid full-page portrait of Roy Acuff, trailer ads with the iconic immediacy of early Warhol and an ad for pure sausage that practically smokes off the page. Interwoven as well with the authors' engaging oral history (Sherraden and Horvath help to run the shop) are such tidbits as business letters from Bessie Smith and Col. Tom Parker, but the bulk of the book is rightly given to reproducing the posters that so powerfully evoke the music and Nashville itself. (May 17)Forecast: After changes of hands beginning in the 1950s, the still operational Hatch was donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992. The book's pub date coincides with the opening of the CMHF's new, $37-million museum complex. Chronicle continues to solidify its position in packaging primary-source curios for popular consumption, from recent huge-scale projects like The Beatles Anthology to The Good Citizen's Handbook, a compilation of mid-20th-century government handbooks and pamphlets.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Nashville's Hatch Show Print began churning out posters in 1879, when Charles and Herbert Hatch, sons of printer William T. Hatch, took their first job--a handbill advertising celebrity preacher Henry Ward Beecher. With woodblocks and metal type, the brothers developed a distinctive style and soon took on vaudeville acts, minstrel shows, and the budding motion-picture industry as clients. It wasn't until the Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting a few blocks north of the shop, however, that business really took off. Now owned by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the shop, while continuing to make its mark for poster making, does a good business reprinting classic posters of Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, and others. This handsome volume, written in part by current manager Jim Sherraden, surveys Hatch Show Print's ups and downs and relays a number of amusing anecdotes, but its real strength is its glorious gallery of wonderfully evocative posters. Benjamin Segedin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811828565
• ISBN-13: 978-0811828567
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 0.9 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Arts & Photography > Graphic Design > Commercial > Advertising

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Proud to be a Hatch Show Printer February 20, 2003

By Bethany Primrose

Format:Hardcover

As a designer and printer at Hatch Show Print, this book makes me very proud. Our beloved Jim Sherraden, along with Elek and Paul did an absolutely amazing job collecting, archiving and compiling 123 years worth of incredible letterpress poster history. The images are simply stunning and the stories are engaging. This is a coffee table book that will spend more time in your hands than on your coffee table.
Buy the book and then stop by the shop located in historic downtown Nashville. Get a tour of the shop, see the posters, and have Jim autograph your book!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful collection of hundreds of years of poster design October 20, 2001

By Delaney Gill

Format:Hardcover

Hatch Show Print: History of an American Print Shop is a pleasurable read of over a century's worth of poster design, but the accompanying images are what make this book. Chronicle Books has done an incredible job of reproducing this letterpress artwork while retaining all of the charms and details of this unique process. Definitely one of those books you can pick up dozens of time and find something with each new look. There is rumor of an expanded version to come in the future, unfolding more of this shop's extensive history and possibly a new chapter chronicling the more recent designs. I definitely look forward to that!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars HATCH is an amazing place with amazing work. October 19, 2001

By Brad

Format:Hardcover

I haven't received the book yet, but I can tell you that the work done at Hatch, both historically and today, is a piece of Americana rarely equalled. Author Jim Sherraden is an amazing artist and craftsman... and, I might add, an extraordinarily nice guy. He's printed several jobs for me and even let me hang around the shop on a couple of trips to Nashville. His personal paintings based on Hatch posters are nothing short of breathtaking. Buy the book and, if you get a chance, stop by the shop in Nashville. These guys are the real deal.