Imagine sitting at a table with a fresh box of crayons.

You open the lid, and a rainbow of colors greets you, reds, blues, greens, yellows, and so many more.

Each crayon has its own neat paper wrapper and sharp tip, ready to bring your drawings to life.

Crayons feel simple, but behind them is a long history of invention, creativity, and fun.

The story of crayons is about how people found a way to put color in children's hands all over the world.

The idea of coloring with wax is not new.

Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians and Greeks used wax mixed with natural pigments to decorate statues and other objects.

Artists in the Middle Ages also used wax in a method called encaustic painting, where hot wax mixed with colors was brushed onto wood or canvas.

While these early techniques were important, they weren't meant for children or everyday

art.

They were complex, messy, and mostly for professional artists.

The crayons we know today began with chalk and charcoal.

In the 1700s and 1800s, artists and students used sticks of colored chalk or compressed charcoal to sketch and shade.

These were helpful, but they broke easily and created dust.

People wanted something cleaner, sturdier, and more colorful.

This led to experiments with mixing pigments and wax into small sticks.

The first crayons designed for kids appeared in Europe in the 1800s.

They were made by combining colored pigments with oil and charcoal.

These early crayons worked, but they were often messy, oily, and sometimes even toxic because of the materials used.

Parents and teachers wanted something safer for children.

That demand for safety and simplicity opened the door for a big invention in America.

In 1903, two cousins, Edwin Binney and Harold Smith, founded the company, Binney and Smith. They were already successful at making

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