Editing Crayon

{{Short description|Stick made up of pigmented wax, used for writing or drawing}}
{{Other uses}}
{{pp-sock|small=yes}}
[[File:Crayones cera.jpg|thumb|right|270px|A colorful selection of crayons]]
A '''crayon''' (or '''wax pastel''') is a stick of [[pigment]]ed [[wax]] used for writing or drawing. Wax crayons differ from [[pastel]]s, in which the pigment is mixed with a dry [[binder (material)|binder]] such as [[gum arabic]], and from [[oil pastel]]s, where the binder is a mixture of wax and oil.

Crayons are available in a range of prices, and are easy to work with. They are less messy than most paints and markers, blunt (removing the risk of sharp points present when using a pencil or pen), typically non-toxic, and available in a wide variety of colors. These characteristics make them particularly good instruments for teaching small children to draw in addition to being used widely by student and professional artists.

==Composition==
In the modern English-speaking world, the term crayon is commonly associated with the standard wax crayon, such as those widely available for use by children. Such crayons are usually approximately {{convert|3.5|in}} in length and made mostly of [[paraffin wax]]. Paraffin wax is heated and cooled to achieve the correct temperature at which a usable wax substance can be dyed and then manufactured and shipped for use around the world. Paraffin waxes are used for cosmetics, candles, for the preparation of printing ink, fruit preserving, in the pharmaceutical industry, for lubricating purposes, and crayons.<ref>Asinger, F. Paraffins: Chemistry and Technology. Long Island City, NY: English Edition Copyright, 1968. 47. Print.</ref>

[[Colin Snedeker]], a chemist for [[Binney & Smith]] (the then-parent company of [[Crayola]]), developed the first washable crayons in response to consumer complaints regarding stained fabrics and walls.<ref name=weagle>{{cite news|first=Beccy|last=Tanner|title=Chemist who came up with washable crayons dies in Wichita |url=http://www.kansas.com/news/local/news-local-obituaries/article110549337.html |work=[[The Wichita Eagle]] |date=2016-10-26 |access-date=2016-12-10}}</ref> A [[patent]] for the washable solid marking composition utilized in the washable crayons was awarded to Snedeker in 1990.<ref name=weagle/>

==History==
[[File:VariousCrayonBoxes.jpg|thumb|A wide variety of crayon boxes have been produced over the years.]]
The history of the crayon is not entirely clear. The [[French language|French]] word ''crayon'', originally meaning "chalk pencil", dates to around the 16th century, and is derived from the word ''craie'' (chalk), which comes from the [[Latin language|Latin]] word ''creta'' (Earth).<ref name="websters">{{cite book
|title=Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
|publisher=Merriam-Webster, Inc
|edition=11th
|year=2004
|page=292
|isbn=0-87779-808-7
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O78rzaI2XmUC&q=crayon+1644&pg=RA1-PA292}}</ref><ref name="hiskeytoday">{{cite web |last1=Hiskey |first1=Daven |title=Where the words "Crayola" and "Crayon" come from |url=http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/07/where-the-words-crayola-and-crayon-come-from/ |website=Today I Found Out |access-date=March 3, 2020 |date=July 1, 2011}}</ref> The meaning later changed to simply "pencil", which it still means in modern French.<ref name="hiskeytoday"/>

The notion to combine a form of wax with pigment goes back thousands of years. [[Encaustic painting]] is a technique that uses hot [[beeswax]] combined with colored pigment to bind color into stone. A heat source was then used to "burn in" and fix the image in place.<ref name="encaustic1">{{cite book
|title=Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians
|last=Wilkinson
|first=John
|publisher=A. Spottiswoode
|location=London
|volume=3
|edition=3rd
|year=1847
|page=110
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8YWAAAAQAAJ&q=encaustic+Egyptians&pg=PA110}}</ref> Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar, was thought to describe the first techniques of wax crayon drawings.<ref name="Girdler, Reynolds 1967">Girdler, Reynolds. "Crayons in the History of the Arts." Art Education. 20.1 (January 1967): 30-32. Print.</ref>

This method, employed by the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, and indigenous people in the [[Philippines]], is still used today. However, the process was not used to make crayons into a form intended to be held and colored with and was therefore ineffective for use in a classroom or as crafts for children.<ref name="encaustic2">{{cite book
|title=History and Methods of Ancient Modern Painting
|last=Ward
|first=James
|publisher=E.P. Dutton & Company
|location=New York, NY
|year=1914
|page=155
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHZAAAAAYAAJ&q=encaustic&pg=RA1-PA155}}</ref>

Contemporary crayons are purported to have originated in Europe, where some of the first cylinder shaped crayons were made with charcoal and oil.<ref name="charcoal">{{cite web|url=http://www.crayola.com/mediacenter/HistoryOfCrayons.doc |title=Crayola Web Site – History of Crayons |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409022027/http://www.crayola.com/mediacenter/HistoryOfCrayons.doc |archive-date=April 9, 2010 }}</ref> Pastels are an art medium sharing roots with the modern crayon and date back to [[Leonardo da Vinci]] in 1495. [[Conté]] crayons, out of Paris, are a hybrid between a pastel and a conventional crayon, used since the late 1790s as a drawing crayon for artists.<ref name="conte">{{cite web
| url = http://jeanvincent.com/conte-invention.htm
| title = Nicolas Conte and the Invention of Conte Crayons
| access-date = 2010-03-01
| archive-date = 2020-10-03
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201003054714/http://jeanvincent.com/conte-invention.htm
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> Later, various hues of powdered pigment eventually replaced the primary charcoal ingredient found in most early 19th century products. References to crayons in literature appear as early as 1813 in Jane Austen's ''Pride and Prejudice''. French lithographer {{ill|Joseph Lemercier|fr|Joseph-Rose Lemercier}} was also one of the inventors of the modern crayon. Through his Paris business circa 1828, he produced a variety of crayon and color related products.<ref name="Lemercier">{{cite book
|title=Encyclopædia Britannica
|last=Baynes
|first=Thomas
|volume=14
|publisher=Henry G. Allen & Company
|location=New York, NY
|year=1888
|page=698
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqMMAAAAYAAJ&q=Lithography+Lemercier&pg=PA698}}</ref> But even as those in Europe were discovering that substituting wax for the oil strengthened the crayon, various efforts in the United States were also developing.

[[File:Dixon Crayon Ad.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Early Dixon crayon ad from August 1901]]
The initial era of wax crayons saw several companies and products competing for the lucrative education and artist markets. The Franklin Mfg. Co, founded in 1876 in [[Rochester, New York]], was one of the first companies to make and sell wax crayons, and in 1883 they appeared with a display of crayons at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] that year.<ref name="FranklinExpo">{{cite book
|title=World's Columbian Exposition – Official Catalog
|last=Smith
|first=Willard
|volume=7
|publisher=W. B. Conkey Company
|location=Chicago, IL
|year=1883
|page=23
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pz41AAAAMAAJ&q=Franklin+Mfg+Co&pg=PA20}}</ref>

Some of the earliest records of the modern [[paraffin wax]] crayon comes from Charles A. Bowley of  Massachusetts, who developed wax coloring crayons in the late 1880s. Bowley had been selling various [[stationery]] items in the vicinity of Danvers and had developed clumps of colored wax designed for marking [[leather]]. With the need for more accuracy, he went back to his home and formed the wax crayons into more manageable cylinder shapes similar to that of a pencil. He packaged his crayons into decorative boxes and offered them through stationer clients he knew. The demand for his crayons soon exceeded his ability to keep up with production and he partnered with the American Crayon Company,<ref>{{cite web|title=''The American Crayon Co., Sandusky, OH, 1835 - 1957'' on website crayoncollecting.com |url=https://crayoncollecting.com/Other/AmericanCrayon.htm |access-date=10 September 2021 |url-status=live |quote= (condensed excerpt) American Crayon Company formed from the merger in 1890 of several older companies, one dating back to 1835.  In 1957 it merged with Joseph Dixon Crucible, which then merged with Bryn Mawr Corporation in 1983 to form the [[Dixon Ticonderoga Company]]. 'Prang' became the brand of crayon made by the American Crayon Company subsidiary thereof.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101008202823/http://crayoncollecting.com/Other/AmericanCrayon.htm |archive-date=2010-10-08 }}</ref> who had been producing chalk crayons, in 1902.<ref name="Bowley">{{cite book
|last=Elliott
|first=Brenda
|title=The Best of Its Kind
|publisher=Bookcrafters
|location=Fredericksburg, VA
|year=1996
|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bestofitskindsin00bren/page/148 148–149]
|isbn=0-9650739-0-4
|url=https://archive.org/details/bestofitskindsin00bren/page/148
}}</ref>

[[Edwin Binney]] and C. Harold Smith had been long established in the coloring marketplace through Binney's [[Peekskill, New York]], chemical works making [[lampblack]] by burning [[whale]] and [[carbon black]], as well as their [[chalk]] products. In 1902, they developed and introduced the Staonal marking crayon. A year later in 1903, Edwin Binney's wife, Alice Stead Binney,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Crayola Crayons |url=https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/snapshot/crayola-crayons |access-date=2022-06-21 |website=Smithsonian Institution |language=en}}</ref> coined the name [[Crayola]] by combining the French word for chalk, ''craie'', with the first part of ''oleaginous'', another name for the paraffin wax used to make the crayon.<ref name="Crayolahist">{{cite book
|last=Kitchel
|first=A.F.
|title=The Story of a Rainbow
|publisher=Crayola LLC
|location=Easton, PA
|year=1961
}}</ref><ref name="Crayolause">{{cite book
|title=The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office
|volume=105
|publisher=Government Printing Office
|location=Washington, DC
|date=Jul–Aug 1903
|page=968
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cMt8AAAAMAAJ&q=Crayola&pg=RA1-PA968
}}</ref> Binney and Smith were quick to capitalize on their creation, selling boxes of various sizes and color pallets.<ref name="Crayolaad1">{{cite book
|title=New York Teachers Monographs
|volume=7
|edition=No 1
|publisher=American Book Company
|location=New York, NY
|date=March 1905
|page=125
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0dxNAAAAMAAJ&q=Crayola&pg=RA1-PA125
}}</ref> The Rubens Crayola line started in 1903 as well,<ref name="Crayolapamphlet">{{cite book
|title=The Art of "Crayola" Painting
|publisher=Binney & Smith
|location=Easton, PA
|year=1904
}}</ref> aimed at artist and designed to compete with the Raphael brand of crayons from Europe.<ref name="CrayolaYouth">{{cite book
|title=The Youth's Companion
|publisher=Perry Mason & Co.
|location=Boston, MA
|date=October 18, 1906
|page=524
}}</ref>

[[File:Crayola Ad 1905.jpg|thumb|March 1905 ad from [[Crayola]]]]
Their most recognizable brand was the Crayola "Gold Medal" line in yellow boxes, which referred to one the company earned with their An-du-Septic dustless chalk during the March [[1904 St. Louis World's Fair]]. They used the award to design a new line of crayons featuring the medal on the front of their box.<ref name="StLouisExpo">{{cite web|url=http://www.tlaupp.com/goldmedal.html |title=Gold Medals Louisiana Purchase Exposition 1904 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822175649/http://www.tlaupp.com/goldmedal.html |archive-date=August 22, 2010 }}</ref> Initially, they developed and introduced the No. 8 box of eight assorted colors, which became an immediate success; it was even featured on a [[postage stamp]] in early 1905.<ref name="CrayolaNo">{{cite book
|title=The West Virginia School Journal
|volume=34
|publisher=Acme Publishing Co.
|location=Morgantown, WV
|date=October 18, 1906
|page=5
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mPQBAAAAYAAJ&q=Crayola&pg=RA8-PA5}}</ref> From there they began to phase out other Crayola crayon boxes until their line of Crayola crayons featured the Gold Medal design.

Hundreds of companies entered the crayon market, but only a few exist today, with Crayola dominating the market in the United States. That brand become a [[generic trademark]]<ref name="gc">{{cite web |url= https://www.genericides.org/trademark/crayola |title= Has crayola become a generic trademark? |access-date= April 29, 2021 |website= genericides.org |archive-date= April 29, 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210429141935/https://www.genericides.org/trademark/crayola |url-status= dead }}</ref> also used to describe other brands' crayons. In all, there were over 300 documented crayon manufacturers in the United States and many more in other countries.

===Today===
[[File:One Made it.jpg|thumb|An assortment of Crayola crayons]]
Beyond Crayola, other [[brand name]] crayon manufacturers today include [[Rose Art Industries]] and [[Dixon Ticonderoga]], the successor to the American Crayon Company. Numerous suppliers create [[generic brand]] or [[store brand]] crayons. These are typically found in supermarkets.

In 2000, there was concern about potential contamination of [[asbestos]] in many popular brands of crayons after the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' reported in May of that year that they had tests performed finding that three brands of crayons contained asbestos.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.commondreams.org/headlines/052300-02.htm|title=Major brands of kids' crayons contain asbestos, tests show|author=Andrew Schneider|author2=Carol Smith|date=May 23, 2000|access-date=December 19, 2009|work=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525061550/http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/052300-02.htm|archive-date=May 25, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> In a follow-up study released in June the [[Consumer Product Safety Commission|U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission]] (CPSC) found traces of asbestos fibers in three crayons and larger amounts of transitional fibers which can be misinterpreted as asbestos<!-- probably need to cite here somehow that these fibers are often mistaken for asbestos, see http://www.olympus-sis.com/en/6900_6928.htm --> as a result of using talc as a binding agent in additional crayons. CPSC declared the risk to be low, but said that because of the concerns it had asked manufacturers to reformulate the concerned crayons and commended them for their swift agreement to do so.<ref>{{cite web|title=CPSC Releases Test Results on Crayons, Industry to reformulate|url=http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00123.html|date=June 13, 2000|access-date=December 19, 2009|publisher=U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721033913/http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00123.html|archive-date=July 21, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cpsc.gov/LIBRARY/FOIA/foia00/os/crayons.pdf|title=CPSC Staff Report on Asbestos Fibers in Children's Crayons|date=August 2000|access-date=2009-11-18|publisher=U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826233121/http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia00/os/crayons.pdf|archive-date=2009-08-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/crayons.asp|title=Crayon Me a River|date=December 31, 2005|access-date=December 19, 2009}}</ref>

==Artists==
Early French artists, including [[François Clouet]] (1510–1572) and [[Nicholas L'agneau]] (1590–1666), used crayons in their early art projects. Clouet used crayons for his modeled portraits, which were so elaborate that he caught the attention of Henry V, who knighted him. He became a court painter for the royalty, and his entire art career began with and consisted of wax crayon art. L'agneau illustrated his portraits with outlines in wax crayons, and with tints of watercolor. His portraits were often of people who looked surprised or unaware of their surroundings.<ref name="Girdler, Reynolds 1967"/>

[[Gertrude Morgan|Sister Gertrude Morgan]] was most known for preaching the Gospel around New Orleans with simplicity and easy-to-understand crayon drawings. Morgan caught the eye of a gallery owner [[Larry Borenstein|E. Lorenz Borenstein]], and was allowed to show her work, play her music and spread her word of God at the gallery. Her early drawings were that of just very modest and simplicity crayon drawings, depicting biblical text to provide a clearer image to those who were unfamiliar with the Bible. Morgan went on to publish a record of her biblical songs and has artwork featured in the [[American Folk Art Museum]] in New York.<ref>"MORGAN, SISTER GERTRUDE (1900-1980)." The Encyclopedia of American Folk Art. London: Routledge, 2003. Credo Reference. Web. 24 September 2012</ref>

==See also==
* [[Grease pencil]]
* [[List of art media]]
* [[List of Crayola crayon colors]]
* [[Conté crayons]]
* [[Photo-crayotype]]
* [[Trois crayons]]
* [[Crayon-eating Marine trope]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Crayons}}
{{Wiktionary}}

[[Category:Visual arts materials]]
[[Category:American inventions]]
[[Category:Stationery]]
[[Category:Products introduced in 1903]]
[[Category:Children's art]]
[[Category:Crayons]]