Nyle Stateler

yle Stateler took a job at a printing company back in 1941. His responsibilities included the set up, layout, and printing of posters, ads, contracts, tickets, letterhead, and heralds for his employer's show business clients. The company was in the “show print” business, specializing in advertising for entertainers. As an apprentice, Nyle learned how to use various kinds of letterpress printing equipment and tools, including intricate woodblocks, woodcuts, and wooden letters. This kind of equipment is rarely found today outside an occasional antique shop, and this printing technique is truly a lost art form. His boss died in 1956, leaving the company to Nyle and two other employees. Over time, the shop came to belong solely to Nyle.

Today, the company still exists in the very same location. And amazingly, in all these years, the printing equipment has stayed the same as well. This small print shop has managed to stay in business for one hundred years, using a technology that has long been retired by most others. Nyle, now 80 years old, along with his wife, Helen, continues to print posters, window cards, and flyers for carnivals, circuses, musicians, and politicians. In essence, this business is a working museum. And housed in the files of this unique facility is a rare archive that chronicles a once thriving industry of traveling entertainers.

Not only does this company print posters, it has also published the local newspaper since 1919. Nyle says the newspaper doesn't turn a profit, so he uses the earnings from the print shop to keep putting out the weekly paper. Nyle and Helen have children, but none were interested in the printing business as a profession. When Nyle is gone, the company will be gone as well.