Crayola Crayons
It's from 1903, before you were born.
- Maker
- Binney & Smith / Crayola
- Type
- Art supplies
- Debuted
- 1903
- Note
- The smell ranks among the most recognizable scents to adults
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About
As of 2026, it's 123 years old.
Crayola crayons rolled out in 1903 as an eight-count box selling for a nickel, the work of a company that had previously made industrial pigments and slate pencils. The name came from Alice Binney — 'craie' (French for chalk) plus 'ola' from 'oléagineux' (oily) — and a childhood staple was born.
Over a hundred colors later (Macaroni and Cheese, Razzmatazz, the retired-amid-protest Dandelion), Crayola has made enough crayons to circle the globe many times over. That waxy smell is so iconic that a Yale study ranked it among the 20 most recognizable scents to American adults, somewhere near coffee and peanut butter.
Colorful, cheap, and gloriously nostalgic, Crayola crayons are the first art supplies almost everyone ever owned — and the reason 'burnt sienna' means something to you.
