Crayola first sold its consumer drawing crayons in 1903.
The product was developed by Edwin Binney and Alice Stead Binney at Binney & Smith. The company had already made industrial pigments, slate school pencils, and marking crayons before entering the children’s drawing market.
The name “Crayola” was suggested by Alice Binney, a former schoolteacher. It combines craie, the French word for chalk, with ola, a suffix associated with oily products. The first Crayola offerings came in several box sizes and color assortments rather than as one single standard package.
A common mix-up is confusing the 1903 launch with the company’s 1904 gold-medal publicity. Binney & Smith won a medal for dustless chalk at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and that award later became prominent on Crayola packaging. The crayons themselves were already being sold before then.