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The Start of the Company
Around 1885, Edwin Binney, and C. Harold Smith, formed the partnership of Binney & Smith. The cousins expanded the company's product line to include shoe polish and printing ink -
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Crayola Crayons
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The Start of Crayons
In 1900, the company purchased a stone mill in Easton, Pennsylvania, and began making slate pencils for schools. This started Binney's and Smith's research into nontoxic and colorful drawing tools for kids. They had already invented a new wax crayon used to mark crates and barrels, however, it was loaded with carbon black which was too toxic, or poisonous to be used by children. -
A New Kind of Crayon
In 1903 a new brand of crayons with superior working qualities was introduced; they called them Crayola Crayons.Crayola brand crayons, the first kids crayons ever made, were invented by cousins, Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith. The first box of eight Crayola crayons was sold in 1903. The crayons were sold for a nickel and the colors were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. The word Crayola was created by Alice Stead Binney (wife of Edwin Binney) -
40 colors added
In 1949, there are 40 colors added. The largest box of crayons now has 48 colors. -
16 colors added
There are now 64 colors in the biggest box of Crayola Crayons. For the first time, the big box comes with a built-in sharpener. In response to educators' requests, “Prussian blue” is renamed “midnight blue.” Teachers felt that children were no longer familiar enough with Prussian history to recognize that this crayon color referred to the famous deep-blue uniforms of Prussian soldiers. -
Peach
Partly in response to the civil rights movement, Crayola decides to change the name of the “flesh” crayon to “peach.” Renaming this crayon was a way of recognizing that skin comes in a variety of shades. -
8 colors added
There are 8 fluorescent colors added:
atomic tangerine
blizzard blue
hot magenta
laser lemon
outrageous orange
screamin' green
shocking pink
wild watermelon The original names in 1972 were changed to these in 1990.
There are now 72 colors in the biggest box of Crayola Crayons. -
16 colors added, 8 retired
There are 16 colors added.
There are 8 colors retired:
blue gray
green blue
lemon yellow
maize
orange red
orange yellow
raw umber
violet blue
Crayola felt that the retired colors (and their names) were too dull to appeal to children today. There are now 80 colors in the biggest box of Crayola Crayons. -
16 colors are added
16 colors are added:
asparagus
cerise
denim
granny smith apple
macaroni and cheese
mauvelous
pacific blue
purple mountain's majesty
razzmatazz
robin's egg blue
shamrock
tickle me pink
timber wolf
tropical rain forest
tumbleweed
wisteria There are now 96 colors in the biggest box of Crayola Crayons. Crayon lovers chose the 16 newest color names through Crayola's “Name the New Color Contest,” part of the company's 90th anniversary celebration. -
24 colors added
There are 24 colors added:
There are now 120 colors in the largest box of crayons. -
Indian Red
In response to educators' requests, “Indian red” is renamed “chestnut.” Contrary to popular belief, the original name of this color was not meant to represent the skin color of Native Americans. Instead, the name referred to a reddish pigment from India that was often used in oil paints.
The new name was the winner of a contest that attracted more than 250,000 entries. Other ideas for renaming the color included “crab claw red,” “mars red,” “baseball mitt,” “red clay,” and “old penny.” -
Changes and Specialties
Thistle was removed and replaced by indigo; torch red was given a new name scarlet.
A number of small “specialty sets” of Crayola Crayons are available. These include glitter crayons, pearl brite crayons, and techno-brite crayons.
