Crayola history

Also in 1900, the company added production of slate school pencils.

Initially formed as a partnership, Binney & Smith incorporated in 1902, and in that year Binney & Smith developed and introduced the Staonal marking crayon.

The Rubens Crayola line, started in 1903, was directly targeted at artists and designed to compete with the Raphael brand of crayons from Europe.

In April 1904 at the St Louis World's Fair, Binney & Smith won the Golden Medal for their An-Du-Septic dustless chalk.

Binney & Smith purchased the Munsell Color Company crayon product line in 1926, and inherited 22 new colors, 11 in the maximum and 11 in the middle hue ranges.

They retained the Munsell name on products such as “Munsell-Crayola” and “Munsell-Perma” until 1934, and then incorporated their colors into their own Crayola Gold Medal line of boxes.

In 1939, Crayola, by combining its existing crayon colors with the Munsell colors, introduced its largest color assortment product to date; a "No.

52 Drawing Crayon 52 Color Assortment", which was retired by the 1944 price list.

In 1949, Crayola introduced the "Crayola No.

Further expansion took place in 1958 with the introduction of the 64-color pack that included the company's first crayon sharpener built into the box.

In 1977, Binney & Smith acquired the rights to Silly Putty, a stretchy, bouncy silicon rubber compound.

Crayola markers were introduced in 1978 to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Crayola crayons.

In 1984, the company was acquired by Hallmark Cards, a privately held corporation.

Colored pencils and a line of washable markers were added in 1987.

In August 1997, Crayola collaborated with Alliance Atlantis and the entertainment arm of Hallmark Cards to release three direct-to-video adaptations of famous children's novels under the name Crayola Kids Adventures.

Crayola Crayons were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York, in 1998.

On January 1, 2007, Binney & Smith reorganized as Crayola LLC, to reflect the company's number one brand.

In 2011, My First Crayola was launched.