please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message crayola llc formerly called binney & smith company type subsidiary of hallmark cards formerly binney & smith company industry handicraft founded march 31 1885 ; 131 years ago 1885 03 31 as binney & smith company founder edwin binney c. harold and john k. smith headquarters forks township pennsylvania united states number of locations 11 area served worldwide key people mike perry president and ceo smith holland vice president & coo kip olmstead vice president marketing peter s. ruggiero vice president operations 1 products chalk crayons markers colored pencils brands crayola silly putty portfolio series number of employees 1 300 2012 1 parent hallmark cards website crayola.com crayola is a brand of artists supplies manufactured by crayola llc formerly binney & smith company and best known for its crayons . the company is based in forks township northampton county pennsylvania . since 1984 crayola has been a wholly owned subsidiary of hallmark cards . 2 originally an industrial pigment supply company crayola soon shifted its focus to art products for home and school use beginning with chalk then crayons followed later by colored pencils markers paints modeling clay and other related goods . all crayola branded products are marketed as nontoxic and safe for use by children . most crayola crayons are made in the united states . 3 the company also produces silly putty and a line of professional art products under the portfolio series brand . crayola llc claims the crayola brand has 99 % name recognition in u.s. consumer households and says its products are sold in over 80 countries . 4 contents 1 history 2 crayons 2.1 colors 3 cultural impact 3.1 commemorative postage stamp 3.2 crayola color census 2000 3.3 the crayola experience 3.4 fine art 4 other products 4.1 other brands 4.1.1 silly putty 4.1.2 portfolio series 4.1.3 liquitex 4.2 licensing 4.3 christmas lights 4.4 manufacturing 5 references 6 external links history edit see also timeline of crayola and history of crayola crayons crayola s founders edwin binney left and c. harold smith right the company was founded by cousins edwin binney and c. harold smith in new york city on march 31 1885 as binney & smith . initial products were colorants for industrial use including red iron oxide pigments used in barn paint and carbon black chemicals used for making tires black and extending their useful lifespan . 5 binney & smith s new process of creating inexpensive black colorants was entered into the chemistry industries competition at the 1900 paris exposition under the title carbon gas blacks lamp or oil blacks peerless black and earned the company a gold medal award in chemical and pharmaceutical arts . 6 7 also in 1900 the company added production of slate school pencils . binney s experimentation with industrial materials including slate waste cement and talc led to the invention of the first dustless white chalk for which the company won a gold medal at the 1904 st. louis world s fair . 7 this crayola advertisement from march 1905 is one of its earliest and shows it offered a variety of boxes and colors early on . initially formed as a partnership binney & smith incorporated in 1902 . in 1902 binney & smith developed and introduced the staonal marking crayon . then edwin binney working with his wife alice stead binney developed his own famous product line of wax crayons beginning on 10 june 1903 8 which it sold under the brand name crayola . the crayola name was coined by alice binney wife of company founder edwin and a former schoolteacher . it comes from craie french for chalk and ola for oleaginous or oily . 7 9 the suffix ola was also popular in commercial use at the time lending itself to products such as granola 1886 10 pianola 1901 11 victrola 1905 12 shinola 1907 13 and mazola 1911 . 14 crayola introduced its crayons not with one box but with a full product line . by 1905 the line had expanded to offering 18 different sized crayon boxes 15 with five different sized crayons only two of which survive today the standard size a standard sized crayola crayon is 3 5 8 5 16 and the large size large sized crayola crayons are 4 7 16 . the product line offered crayon boxes containing 6 7 8 12 14 16 18 24 28 or 30 different color crayons . some of these boxes were targeted for artists and contained crayons with no wrappers while others had a color number printed on the wrapper that corresponded to a number on a list of color names printed inside the box lid but some boxes contained crayons with their color names printed on their wrappers . the rubens crayola line started in 1903 not in the 1920s as claimed by some sources 16 was directly targeted at artists and designed to compete with the raphael brand of crayons from europe . the crayon boxes sold from five cents for a no. 6 rubens box containing six different colored crayons to 1.50 for the no. 500 rubens special artists and designers crayon box containing 24 different colored larger 4 1 4 1 2 crayons . 17 inside the rubens crayola no. 500 crayon box in april 1904 at the st. louis world s fair binney & smith won the gold medal for their an du septic dustless chalk . 18 subsequently crayola used the opportunity to develop a new packaging strategy by emphasizing their gold medal on the front of many of their products and crayon boxes . this strategy turned out to be so successful and recognizable to their brand that they phased out nearly all of their other crayola line box designs to adapt to the gold medal format which appeared on their packaging for the next 50 plus years . the first two gold medal line 8 count boxes in 1905 the prototype offering of their new no. 8 crayon box with eight crayons featured a copy from the side of the medal with an eagle on it . this was changed to the other side of the medal with the 1904 date on it in roman numerals . an original munsell crayons box and later binney & smith boxes 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 . 19 20 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 . 21 the crayola no. 52 box 1939 1944 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. 48 containing 48 color crayons in a non peggable floor box . 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 . 22 the 64 color box was called a watershed moment in the history of the crayola crayon by smithsonian national museum of american history curator david shayt . 23 24 the corporation became a publicly traded company under the symbol bys on the american stock exchange in 1963 and later moved to the new york stock exchange under the same symbol in 1978 . 5 in 1977 binney & smith acquired the rights to silly putty a stretchy bouncy toy . 25 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 . 5 crayola crayons were inducted into the national toy hall of fame at the strong in rochester new york in 1998 . in the same year the crayola factory opened . on january 1 2007 binney & smith became crayola llc to improve crayola branding as part of hallmark . 1 4 in 2011 my first crayola was launched . products include triangular crayons and flat tipped markers . in 2015 crayola announced color escapes for adults to help them relieve stress . the kit will include four collections such as geometric garden natural kaleidoscope . 26 crayons edit crayola crayon packs vary in package counts of just a few crayons sold to establishments such as hotels and restaurants to hand out to their young guests 27 to 832 crayon classpack bulk boxes marketed to schools . 28 the colors contained in a package have ranged from two to 200 although a 200 color package includes special effect crayons such as glitters neons etc. . the most common retail packages are multiples of eight with 8 16 24 48 64 96 and 120 packs being marketed today . 29 30 31 a 150 crayon pack featuring a plastic telescope like case was introduced in 2006 and includes 118 regular color crayons 16 glitter crayons and 16 metallic fx crayons as well as a built in sharpener at the apex of the tower . 32 this was followed up by a 152 crayon set in a plastic yellow carrying case with all colors being exactly the same including metallic and glitter crayons except for the addition of piggy pink and blue bell . the first version of the crayola no. 64 box 2009 64 crayon pack sporting built in sharpener crayola telescoping 150 crayon tower colors edit further information list of crayola crayon colors history of crayola crayons list of crayola colored pencil colors list of crayola marker colors and alternative names of crayola crayons thirteen of 50 officially retired crayola crayon colors as the size of crayola crayon packs increased from the original 1903 crayon packs the variety of colors available has also increased reaching 120 colors by 1998 . since 1998 new colors have been added but always replacing existing colors . in all 50 colors have been retired bringing the total number of regular colors produced to 170 . the colors in the box below come in the packs of 8 16 and 24 8 pack as of 1903 8 16 pack as of 1930 8 24 pack as of 1999 red orange carnation pink red orange violet red scarlet yellow green yellow orange yellow green dandelion green yellow blue violet purple blue green blue violet cerulean indigo brown black red violet white apricot gray cultural impact edit a yale university study on scent recognition found the scent of crayola crayons is one of the most recognizable scents for adults 7 ranking at number 18 trailing coffee and peanut butter that were number one and two respectively but beating out cheese and bleach which placed at 19 and 20 . 33 the smithsonian national museum of american history maintains a collection of crayola crayons founded by an original 64 color box donated by binney & smith in 1998 . the collection now includes more than 300 boxes of crayons . 23 the crayola crayon was inducted into the national toy hall of fame as a founding member at its inception . crayola has been featured in segments from the popular children s shows sesame street 34 and mister rogers neighborhood with the official 100 billionth crayon molded by fred rogers himself in february 1996 at the plant in easton . 35 commemorative postage stamp edit 1998 usps stamp commemorating crayola crayons in 1998 the united states postal service issued a 32 cent postage stamp to