5. SNAP!

 

5/ SNAP! That was one of the more satisfying sounds of childhood — to hear the closing of the steel case of water colors. American Crayon Company may have been known among more children for its watercolor paints in grade school than for their crayons. ACC’s most successful brand was Prang, known by their distinctive black cases with red circle or oval. The lids flipped up and contained trays for mixing water and colors. The eight or more color ovals had to be added by hand —a task no machine could manage. Sometime in the mid 70s ACC after they were acquired, they company switched from the steel cases to the white plastic one you see at the bottom of the large picture. Even then, in my kid brain, I somehow felt this was a bad sign and that things were on a downward trend for the company. No more satisfying SNAP! 

 This and other stories are contained in The Color Capital of the World: Growing Up with the Legacy of a Crayon Company available here.

 

4. Art Packaged in Art

 

4/Art Packaged in Art. In the 1920s and 30s American Crayon issued a series of painting and coloring sets. The sets included coloring books crayons paints stencils and often based on classic children’s stories such as Cinderella and Jack and Jill. The covers were usually done by recognized Children’s illustrators at the time such as Esther Brock. 

This and other stories are contained in The Color Capital of the World: Growing Up with the Legacy of a Crayon Company available here.

3. CRAYONS AND CARTOONS

3/ Crayons and cartoons: American Crayon co-branded with popular cartoons in the 30s 40s and 50s as did other crayons companies. Featuring in today’s post their two most popular co-brands were the comic strips Popeye and Blondie. 

2. Starting Small: Childrens Crayons

 

Second in my crayon series…this one a sample of a few of American Crayons Co’s first products. In the early 1900s, ACC Offered a series of “penny pack” crayons and chalk. Some of the small square packs came w a picture on the back for a child to color. It was early days and there was still some confusion over the term “crayon”. Some were wax crayons and others chalk crayons. Eventually wax based crayons became known simply as crayons. They briefly offered packaging in a small cardboard canister — American Buckeye School Crayons.

***

 

Color Capital of the World is available with a discount code that gives 30% off (crayon30) for this site only. University of Akron Press

 

It's also available through your independent book stores and here: 

Bookshop.org

Indiebound

 

And of course the big guys

 

Barnes & Noble

Books A Million

Hudson

Amazon