Crayola Colors List

Crayola produces crayons and other children's art supplies.

Crayola is a company that produces and distributes children's art supplies including crayons, markers, colored pencils and chalk. Crayola's products are generally nontoxic and come with creative craft ideas for children, parents and teachers alike. Crayola products come in primary colors such as red and green, but are also known for creative names such as robin's egg blue. Throughout the years, Crayola has introduced a variety of colors available only in boxes of Crayola products.

Early 1900s

Crayola was started in the early 1900s by a company named Binney and Smith. The very first box of Crayola crayons, available in 1903, contained eight crayons with the colors black, brown, orange, violet, blue, green, red and yellow. Until the late 1940s, Crayola manufactured and sold only these colors.

1949-1957

Crayola introduced 40 new colors to the color palette of Crayola crayons in 1949. These colors included apricot, magenta, turquoise blue, brick red and periwinkle. Crayola colors were not without their controversy, either. In 1949 Crayola produced a color they called Prussian blue. In 1958 the color was changed to midnight blue at the request of teachers. You can still find midnight blue in your crayon box today. In addition, flesh, a color produced in 1949, was changed to the name peach in 1962 as a result of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

1958-1989

By 1971 Crayola had released 64 colors in total. New colors included copper, mulberry, lavender, sepia, raw sienna and Indian red. In 1999 the color Indian red was renamed chestnut in response to educators' belief that children perceived the color to represent the skin color of Native Americans. By 1989 a total of 72 colors were available on the Crayola color palette, including new fluorescent colors such as laser lemon and screamin' green.

1990-Present

In 1990 Crayola retired several colors including maize, blue gray and raw umber. All retired colors were placed into the Crayola Hall of Fame. To replace the retired colors, Crayola released colors such as fuchsia, dandelion and wild strawberry. In 1993 crayola released a line of new colors named by consumers such as timber wolf, robin's egg blue and shamrock. By 1998 Crayola offered 120 colors, the same number as there are today. Mulberry, blizzard blue, magic mint and teal blue were retired in 2003 to make room for inchworm, jazzberry jam, mango tango and wild blue yonder, released the same year. The colors were named by consumers as they were in 1993 to celebrate Crayola's 100th anniversary. Since 2003 all colors have stayed the same on the Crayola color palette.

References

• Crayola Color Corner: Crayola Color Chronology