Hatching ideas...

My June Anthro catalog spurred my love of Hatch on once again. It was a few years back that I spotted a few Hatch Show prints in the corner of a room in Domino and after some online research I discovered Hatch Show Print. This month's Anthro catalog features musicians as models and the classic Hatch letterpress prints throughout.

The Hatch Show began, ordinarily enough, with the Hatch family (kind of like Huntsville and the Hunt family--Alabama history joke only my mother would laugh at!). William H. Hatch ran a print shop in Prescott, Wisconsin, where his two sons, Charles R. and Herbert H. (born in 1852 and 1854, respectively), learned the art of letterpress printmaking. In 1875, William moved his family to Nashville where, four years later, Charles and Herbert founded CR and HH Hatch.

From their very first print job - a handbill announcing the appearance of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe), the Hatch Brothers got the look right. Here was the simplicity, the effortless balance between type size and style, vertical and horizontal layout. Here too was the distinct whiff of American history, Southern culture and entertainment.
Hatch flourished, for these were the days when show business was get-up-and-go business. Show posters created the excitement that sold the show, covering the sides of buildings and barns in cities and towns throughout the country. Whether circus, minstrel show, vaudeville act or carnival, if you wanted to fill seats, Hatch got the job done.