50 Fun Facts About Crayon

Crayola crayons were first sold in which year?

Edwin Binney and his wife Alice developed the line after the company's 1902 Staonal marking crayon, which was too toxic for children.

The name 'Crayola' combines the French word for chalk with a suffix meaning what?

The founder's wife, a former schoolteacher, coined it; '-ola' was a fashionable suffix, as in granola, pianola and Victrola.

Who coined the Crayola brand name?

She was Edwin Binney's wife and a former schoolteacher.

Which greeting-card company has owned Crayola since 1984?

The company had traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BYS before the takeover.

Where is Crayola headquartered?

The company reorganised as Crayola LLC in 2007 to reflect its number-one brand.

Before crayons, Binney & Smith's carbon black was famously used to colour and strengthen what product?

Their red iron oxide pigment also went into barn paint, and their cheap black earned a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Edwin Binney won a gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair for inventing what?

He made it by experimenting with slate waste, cement and talc, and the medal ended up on Crayola boxes for 50 years.

How were Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith related?

Binney was born in Shrub Oak, New York; Smith was born in London.

The 64-crayon box, called a 'watershed' by a Smithsonian curator, debuted in which year?

It was the first box with a built-in sharpener; four rows of sixteen sit progressively raised inside the flip-top.

How many crayons were in the box that Crayola introduced in 1949, its largest for a decade?

A 52-colour assortment had briefly existed from 1939 until wartime pigment shortages killed it.

The 'Flesh' crayon was renamed to what in 1962, partly in response to the civil rights movement?

It had been 'Flesh Tint' until 1949 and 'Pink Beige' from 1956 to 1958.

In 1999 Crayola renamed 'Indian Red' to what?

The colour, in the line since the company's earliest years, referred to a pigment from India, but the company feared children would read it as a skin tone.

Which of these was among the eight colours Crayola retired into the 'Crayon Hall of Fame' in 1990?

Lemon Yellow, Raw Umber, Orange-Red, Orange-Yellow, Green-Blue, Violet-Blue and Blue-Gray went with it; Cerulean and Dandelion were among the replacements.

What name did a public vote give the blue crayon that replaced Dandelion in 2017?

The hue came from a pigment discovered by accident at Oregon State University.

The 2017 blue crayon was inspired by YInMn Blue, a pigment whose name is built from the chemical symbols of yttrium, indium and which element?

Professor Mas Subramanian and student Andrew E. Smith stumbled on it in 2009 while researching electronics materials.

Which colour did fans vote to save from retirement for Crayola's 100th anniversary in 2003?

Mulberry, Teal Blue, Blizzard Blue and Magic Mint were retired instead, making room for Mango Tango, Inchworm, Wild Blue Yonder and Jazzberry Jam.

Which of these was one of the 16 fan-named colours added to the 96 Big Box in 1993?

Tickle Me Pink, Mauvelous, Purple Mountains' Majesty and Razzmatazz came from the same nationwide contest.

A special colour called 'Blue Ribbon' was produced in 1996 to celebrate what?

It appeared only in limited-edition No. 96 boxes early that year and never joined the regular assortment.

Which children's TV host moulded a ceremonial milestone crayon at Crayola's plant in 1996?

Both Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street have run segments filmed at Crayola.

Crayola's first 120-count box appeared in which year?

Twelve colours were added to hit the number, including Manatee, Eggplant, Cotton Candy and the metallic Antique Brass.

How many colours had Crayola officially retired by the end of 2024?

Retirements began in 1990, with more in 2003 and 2017; the 2021 Colors of Kindness pack added four new ones.

Crayola's 'Multicultural Crayons' and 'Colors of the World' packs represent what?

The 2020 line has 24 crayons covering nearly 40 skin tones with a gradient label on the box.

Why did Crayola change some of its 1994 Magic Scent crayons the following year?

Cherry, chocolate and blueberry were dropped in favour of non-food smells.

Crayola's first specialty crayons, introduced in 1972, were designed to do what?

The eight fluorescents included Atomic Tangerine, Laser Lemon and Screamin' Green.

Which stretchy toy has Crayola owned the rights to since 1977?

It began as a failed wartime rubber substitute; Peter Hodgson borrowed $147 to pack it into plastic eggs in 1950.

Crayola's bouncing putty took off in 1950 after being mentioned in which magazine?

Peter Hodgson sold over 250,000 eggs in three days after the piece ran, then was nearly ruined when the Korean War put silicone on ration.

Crayola markers were launched in 1978 to coincide with what?

Coloured pencils and a further line of markers followed in 1987.

Crayola crayons were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998, located in which city?

They were a founding member; the same year the US Postal Service put a Crayola box on a 32-cent stamp.

Which colour won Crayola's 'Color Census 2000' vote for America's favourite crayon?

Cerulean came second and Purple Heart third; George W. Bush picked Blue Bell and Tiger Woods chose Wild Strawberry.

The World's Largest Crayon, unveiled at the Crayola Experience in 2003, is what colour?

The 15-foot, 1,500-pound crayon was made from leftover bits ('leftolas') that children mailed in from across the country.

The Crayola Experience, originally the Crayola Factory, is in which Pennsylvania town?

Later branches opened in Orlando, the Mall of America, Plano and Chandler.

Which colour company did Binney & Smith buy in 1926, bringing the colour wheel into Crayola?

The Munsell system had five principal and five intermediate hues; Crayola kept a colour-wheel structure until 1990.

Modern children's crayons are made mostly from which material?

Encaustic painting with hot beeswax goes back to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, but it was never a hand-held classroom tool.

Which Roman scholar is thought to have described the first wax crayon drawing techniques?

He was writing about encaustic painting, in which pigment is bound in hot beeswax and 'burned in'.

The French word 'crayon' originally meant what?

It derives from craie, chalk, and in modern French simply means pencil.

Which Jane Austen novel contains one of the earliest literary references to crayons, from 1813?

Around the same time French lithographer Joseph Lemercier was making crayon products in Paris.

Charles A. Bowley developed early wax crayons in the 1880s from wax he had used to mark what?

He rolled the wax into pencil-like cylinders and joined the American Crayon Company in 1902 when demand outran his output.

Binney & Smith chemist Colin Snedeker was awarded a patent in 1990 for inventing what?

The invention answered years of complaints about stained walls and clothes.

Crayola's 1903 Rubens line was designed to compete with which European crayon brand?

A No. 500 Rubens box of 24 larger crayons cost $1.50, against five cents for a basic six-pack.

Crayola's 1904 gold medal came for a dustless chalk sold under what name?

The medal design then appeared on Crayola boxes for more than 50 years.

Crayola's 150-crayon pack of 2006 came in a case shaped like what?

It held 118 regular colours plus glitter and Metallic FX crayons and had a sharpener at the top of the tower.

What percentage of US households does Crayola say recognise its brand name?

Its products are sold in more than 80 countries.

How long is a standard children's wax crayon?

The paraffin wax used to make them also goes into candles, cosmetics and printing ink.

Which company, founded in Rochester in 1876, was among the first to make and sell wax crayons?

The firm showed off its crayons at the World's Columbian Exposition; over 300 US crayon makers have been documented in all.

In 1902, Charles Bowley partnered with which chalk maker to meet demand for his wax sticks?

Demand for his Massachusetts-made wax crayons had outstripped what he could produce alone.

Which Paris lithographer of the 1820s is counted among the inventors of the modern crayon?

Conté crayons, a pastel-crayon hybrid, had been used by artists since the late 1790s.

Which newspaper's 2000 report of asbestos in three crayon brands prompted a federal review?

The Consumer Product Safety Commission judged the risk low but asked manufacturers to reformulate, and they agreed.

Which 16th-century French court portraitist built his entire career on wax crayon work?

Nicolas Lagneau later outlined his portraits in wax crayon and tinted them with watercolour.

In which year did the US Postal Service issue a 32-cent stamp honouring Crayola crayons?

It was part of the Celebrate the Century series, on the sheet for the 1900s decade.

How much does the World's Largest Crayon at the Crayola Experience weigh?

The 15-foot blue crayon was made from leftover crayon bits sent in by children across the country.