Wax, Pigment, and Two Cousins: The Story Behind Crayola

The world’s most beloved crayon has inspired creativity since the first box of eight rolled off the production line.

Featuring 28 colors, this Crayola set for "young artists" was one of the earliest produced in 1903. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Close your eyes and smell a crayon. Something happens. It is not quite nostalgia and not quite memory but something closer to both: a direct line back to a particular age, a particular table, a particular blank page.

Few manufactured objects have ever earned that kind of hold on a person. But the crayon’s story stretches back thousands of years, long before a box of eight colors could be bought at a corner store for 5 cents.

The Ancient Roots of Wax and Color