I was sitting on the floor playing with O. yesterday when he got a hold of a box of crayons. He had a wonderful time with all of the colors, and kept them out of his mouth…mostly.
It all got me wondering though, how did the crayon come about? When was it invented, and how??
So, I consulted the answer box (aka “the computer”) – and here’s what I learned…
The word “crayon” means a LOT of different things. At it’s most basic definition a crayon is “a stick of colored wax, charcoal, chalk, or other materials used for writing, coloring, and/or drawing”.
example of encaustic painting
Crayons as many people think of them today are made of pigmented wax. This type of crayon originated around the mid 1800s. No one knows for sure who or where the first wax crayon was actually made, but, around this time both in Europe and in the US, makers of artistic materials were beginning to experiment with adding pigment to various waxes to create a new type of drawing material.
The people usually credited with making and selling the first wax crayons in the US are Edward Binney and Harold Smith; the founders of Crayola. However, Binney and Smith did not sell their first pack of crayons until 1903. There were a few companies that seem to have them beat as far as first date of sale, but they became the most well known maker of modern day wax crayons today.
The idea of adding pigment to wax is quite an old one. It actually began all the way back with the Egyptians. The Egyptians, the Romans, and a few other civilizations used 
colored beeswax in an art form known as encaustic painting….basically painting on stone. The beeswax helped to affix the color onto the stone to create the final masterpiece. This type of pigmented wax was unsuited for drawing though, so was never used in this way.
As history progressed, artists began to use charcoal and after that pastel clays and pigments mixed with oil. These mediums, along with wax, are the 3 main types of “crayons” used by artists. The first two contributed to the invention of the wax crayon as we know it today in many ways, one of which is the shape.
Most wax crayons you see today are made in the shape of a cylinder with a point on the end, like a pencil. But, that wasn’t always the case. Europeans began making cylindrical crayons out of charcoal and oil in the late 1700s, and possibly farther. This shape then spread to oil pastels(powdered pigment and oil) and, eventually onto wax crayons.
As charcoal and pastel crayons increased in popularity among artists, people began to realize that using wax instead of oil to make the crayons would help create a stronger product. It did that and more! In the end, a whole new artistic medium was created. The Crayon, was born!