Charles and Herbert Hatch opened their Nashville printing business in 1879 and first used it to produce church advertising. Their first woodcut-printed handbill – on display in the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum’s new exhibit, “American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print” – heralded an appearance by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the brother of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe.

But decades later, the Hatches found a niche in popular music, crafting some of the most striking images in country and rock and paving the way for the sort of limited-edition posters hipsters collect at rock shows today. “It’s sort of a bold, clean design that’s really timeless,” Jasen Emmons, the museum’s director of curatorial affairs said, commenting on the Hatch aesthetic as he led a recent tour of “American Letterpress.” “There’s this real sense of Americana.”

The exhibit was organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, and EMP/SFM is its first stop.

Part of the reason the Hatches were able to hang on for well over a century, Emmons explained, was their company’s flexibility. Many of their woodcut designs were used for product advertisements, emblazoned with such all-American slogans as “more power, more pep” and “always clean, always good.”

Other handbills featured in the gallery were originally used to promote turn-of-the century three-ring circuses. A newer poster in the EMP/SFM exhibit – heralding Korn and Snoop Dogg’s appearance at the 1997 Lollapalooza festival, made using an undated woodcut of an image of a clown and Ferris wheel from decades earlier – makes the lineage between populist entertainment of today and the turn of yesteryear more clear.

But the Hatches truly became part of pop musical lore during their golden age, under the direction of William T. Hatch. In the 1940s and 1950s, Hatch lived behind Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry.

“Hatch really became the go-to person for the Grand Ol’ Opry,” Emmons explained, pointing out timeless handbills heralding appearances by Bill Monroe and Minnie Pearl, in striking greens, blues and blacks on off-white parchment. “Howdy, I’m jes’ so proud to be here,” reads a quirky speech balloon over Pearl’s head.

The connection between these vintage images and the sorts of silkscreen posters that hipsters collect at rock shows today will be most obvious in Hatch handbills heralding appearances by today’s pop stars, the likes of Beck and the White Stripes. Emmons pointed to the ’80s as a period during which Hatch’s images started to be widely seen more for their aesthetic value. “Now it’s become art to display on your walls,” he said.

“American Letterpress” is the first exhibit in the Seattle museum’s eight years to highlight country music. And to mark the occasion, EMP/SFM has augmented the show by displaying several outfits worn by country royalty: Gene Autry’s boots; a somber black outfit worn by the late Johnny Cash; and a much more flamboyant pink ensemble, embroidered with flowers, frogs and turtles, once upon a time worn by Hank Snow.

The exhibit will remain in Seattle through July 16.

Ernest Jasmin: 253-274-7389

What: “American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print”

When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, through July 16

Where: EMP/SFM, 325 Fifth Ave. N., Seattle

Admission: $15 most adults; $12 for senior citizens, youth and with student or military ID; free for children younger than 5

Information: 206-770-2702 or www.empsfm.org