Helping Aubie this week is Barry Fleming, Associate Professor of Art, with AU’s College of Liberal Arts.

Dear Alex,

This is a good question, Alex.  The America Heritage Dictionary defines “crayon” as a stick of colored wax, charcoal or chalk used for drawing. The Columbia Encyclopedia states that it is any drawing material available in stick form. Most of us associate the word crayon with Crayola Crayons which are made of colored pigment mixed with wax, but charcoal, chalk, pastels, oil pastels and other drawing materials in stick form may be referred to as a crayon.

Crayola Crayons were invented by cousins Edwin Binney and C. Howard Smith and first introduced in 1903. The colors were black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow and green. The company now produces more than 100 colors of crayons. The word crayon comes from the French word ‘craie’ which means chalk. The word Crayola uses the French words ‘craie’ and ‘oleaginous’ meaning oily.

We don’t know for sure who invented the first crayon but someone, perhaps hundreds of years ago, noticed that if a piece of charcoal was soaked in a refined oil the material would become much more permanent when applied to paper and other surfaces. Over time, people discovered that if wax or gum tragacanth is substituted for oil the sticks of crayon are much easier to handle and are not so messy. Many of our modern crayons are made to be non-toxic. So, enjoy the modern times we live in and draw with as many colors as you wish.

Thanks for your question,
Aubie and Mr. Fleming