Sacramento History Museum becomes famous on social media

(FOX40.COM) — The name Howard Hatch might ring a bell. That’s because Hatch has been a volunteer docent at the Sacramento History Museum for 25 years.

He spends the majority of his time printing on a 1852 historic Washington Hand Press. However, that’s the only place you may have seen Hatch. Odds are if you are a social media user, you have seen Hatch on Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, or Facebook.

In his mid-80s Hatch became an international viral social media sensation racking up subscribers by the million! Reaching millions of views and likes from people all around the world.

“Numbers that I can’t even get my head around anymore,” Hatch said.

The social media videos showing Hatch, ‘The Printer’, well, just doing his job. It all started during the pandemic.

“I asked Howard, can I film you for Tik Tok? And he said, what’s Tik Tok?” said Jared Jones, Sacramento History Museum social media manager.

“It was some… crazy dance routines were the hot thing at that particular time. So, I came back and told Jared, I said, I am not doing any of that crazy dancing stuff,” Hatch added.

After being convinced it wouldn’t involve any dancing Jones started documenting Howard using the 1852 Washington handpress. The videos capture the old school printing press while throwing out a couple of historical facts and puns.

“I’m learning from Howard and the world is learning from Howard at the same time,” Jones said.

Fast forward to almost four years later, their social media accounts just keep growing.

“We are now at over three million YouTube subscribers,” Jones said. “So, we are the most followed museum on Tik Tok and the most subscribed museum on YouTube.”

“There’s been some instances where I’ve been recognized around Sacramento, even though I’m not dressed like this,” Hatch said.

For Hatch and Jones, it’s not about fame or verified blue check marks. It’s about sharing their passion and a little bit of Sacramento to people all around the world – one video at a time.

“It’s something that I never would have thought would happen. But I am blessed to not only get to work with Howard a couple of days a week, but we are able to share Sacramento with not just the people that visit our museum, but the people that never be able to visit our museum in person,” Jones said.