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47 free Crayon trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free crayon trivia questions with answers. Almost everyone has held a Crayola crayon, and almost nobody knows who named it, why 'Flesh' became 'Peach' or which colour America voted its favourite in 2000. This crayon trivia covers the whole box: Edwin and Alice Binney, the 1903 launch, the dustless-chalk gold medal that ended up on every box, the Munsell colour wheel, the 1957 64-pack with its sharpener, the retirements of 1990 and 2003, Dandelion's farewell and Bluetiful's arrival, Silly Putty, the Crayola Experience and the 1,500-pound blue crayon. There are questions on crayons before Crayola too: Pliny the Elder and encaustic wax, the French chalk pencil, Jane Austen's 1813 mention, and the Massachusetts stationer who rolled leather-marking wax into sticks. Easy ones any kid can get; hard ones for people who remember what Indian Red was renamed. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Crayola, the crayon and its colours, and each question shows the sentence that backs it up. Good for a classroom, a craft party or a rainy-day family quiz.
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Q 01Crayola crayons were first sold in which year?
1903
Crayola crayons went on sale in 1903 at five cents a box, a year after Binney & Smith's industrial Staonal marking crayon, and were aimed at schoolchildren.
Q 02The name 'Crayola' combines the French word for chalk with a suffix meaning what?
Oily
The '-ola' ending comes from oleaginous, meaning oily, a nod to the wax in the crayons; the same suffix was fashionable in names like pianola and Victrola.
Q 03Who coined the Crayola brand name?
Alice Binney
Alice Binney, a former schoolteacher married to co-founder Edwin Binney, coined the name 'Crayola' for the company's new children's crayons.
Q 04Which greeting-card company has owned Crayola since 1984?
Hallmark Cards
Hallmark Cards bought Binney & Smith, the maker of Crayola crayons, in 1984, and the family-owned greeting-card company kept Crayola as a subsidiary.
Q 05Where is Crayola headquartered?
Forks Township, Pennsylvania
Crayola's headquarters sit in Forks Township, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley; Binney & Smith renamed itself Crayola LLC in 2007 after its best-known brand.
Q 06Before crayons, Binney & Smith's carbon black was famously used to colour and strengthen what product?
Car tyres
Binney & Smith's carbon black went into car tyres, turning them from white to black and making the rubber far tougher; the firm's red oxide pigment also coloured barn paint.
Q 07Edwin Binney won a gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair for inventing what?
Dustless white chalk
The medal went to Binney's dustless white chalk, a schoolroom chalk that did not powder hands and clothes; the medal's image was printed on crayon boxes for decades.
Q 08How were Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith related?
Cousins
Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith were cousins; in 1885 they took over the Peekskill Chemical Works founded by Binney's father and renamed it Binney & Smith.
Q 09Which feature made its debut with Crayola's 64-crayon box in 1958?
A built-in sharpener
The 64-crayon box of 1958 was the first Crayola box with a built-in sharpener, set into the back of its flip-top carton above four stepped tiers of sixteen crayons.
Q 10How many crayons were in the box that Crayola introduced in 1949, its largest for a decade?
48
The 48-crayon box arrived in 1949 and stayed Crayola's biggest assortment until the 64-crayon box of 1958.
Q 11The 'Flesh' crayon was renamed to what in 1962, partly in response to the civil rights movement?
Peach
Crayola renamed Flesh as Peach in 1962, partly in response to the civil rights movement; the crayon had earlier been called Flesh Tint and, briefly, Pink Beige.
Q 12In 1999 Crayola renamed 'Indian Red' to what?
Chestnut
Indian Red became Chestnut in 1999; the name had referred to a reddish-brown pigment from India, but Crayola worried children took it as a reference to Native Americans.
Q 13Which of these was among the eight colours Crayola retired into the 'Crayon Hall of Fame' in 1990?
Maize
Maize was among the eight colours retired in 1990 with Lemon Yellow, Raw Umber, Orange Red and Orange Yellow; Cerulean and Dandelion were among their replacements.
Q 21Crayola's 'Multicultural Crayons' and 'Colors of the World' packs represent what?
Skin tones
The 2020 line has 24 crayons covering nearly 40 skin tones with a gradient label on the box.
Q 22Why did Crayola change some of its 1994 Magic Scent crayons the following year?
Parents said they smelled edible
Parents said they smelled edible: food scents such as cherry, chocolate and blueberry might tempt children to eat the crayons, so in 1995 Crayola swapped them for non-food smells such as fresh air and lumber.
Q 23Crayola's first specialty crayons, introduced in 1972, were designed to do what?
Glow under black light
Q 14What name did a public vote give the blue crayon that replaced Dandelion in 2017?
Bluetiful
The winning name was Bluetiful, chosen in a public vote in 2017; the hue was inspired by a pigment discovered by accident at Oregon State University.
Q 15The 2017 blue crayon was inspired by YInMn Blue, a pigment whose name is built from the chemical symbols of yttrium, indium and which element?
Manganese
Professor Mas Subramanian and student Andrew E. Smith stumbled on it in 2009 while researching electronics materials.
Q 16Which colour did fans vote to save from retirement for Crayola's 100th anniversary in 2003?
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Sienna won the 2003 'Save the Shade' vote and stayed in the box, while Mulberry, Teal Blue, Blizzard Blue and Magic Mint were retired to make room for Mango Tango, Inchworm and Jazzberry Jam.
Q 17Which of these was one of the 16 fan-named colours added to the 96 Big Box in 1993?
Macaroni and Cheese
Macaroni and Cheese was one of 16 colours named by the public in 1993 for the 96-crayon Big Box, alongside Tickle Me Pink, Mauvelous, Purple Mountains' Majesty and Razzmatazz.
Q 18A special colour called 'Blue Ribbon' was produced in 1996 to celebrate what?
The 100 billionth crayon
Blue Ribbon marked the 100 billionth crayon Crayola produced, in 1996; it came only in limited-edition 96-count boxes that year and never joined the regular line.
Q 19Which children's TV host moulded a ceremonial milestone crayon at Crayola's plant in 1996?
Fred Rogers
Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, moulded the ceremonial crayon in 1996; his programme had earlier filmed a famous segment on how crayons are made.
Q 20How many colours had Crayola officially retired by the end of 2024?
13
Crayola had officially retired 13 colours by the end of 2024: eight in 1990, four in 2003 and Dandelion in 2017.
The eight fluorescent crayons of 1972 were made to glow under black light; the line later carried names such as Laser Lemon and Screamin' Green.
Q 24Which stretchy toy has Crayola owned the rights to since 1977?
Silly Putty
Silly Putty began as a failed wartime rubber substitute; Peter Hodgson borrowed $147 to pack it into plastic eggs in 1950, and Binney & Smith bought the brand in 1977.
Q 25Crayola's bouncing putty took off in 1950 after being mentioned in which magazine?
The New Yorker
A 'Talk of the Town' item in The New Yorker in August 1950 brought Peter Hodgson over 250,000 orders in three days; a Korean War silicone restriction then nearly sank him.
Q 26Crayola launched its first markers to coincide with which company milestone?
The crayon's 75th anniversary
Crayola's first markers arrived in 1978, timed to the crayon's 75th anniversary; coloured pencils followed in 1987.
Q 27Crayola crayons are in the National Toy Hall of Fame, housed since 2002 in which city?
Rochester, New York
The National Toy Hall of Fame has been housed at The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, since 2002; Crayola crayons were among its inaugural inductees.
Q 28How many crayons came in the first box of Crayola crayons?
8
The first Crayola box held 8 crayons in basic colours and sold for five cents; Binney & Smith aimed it at schoolchildren as a safe, affordable drawing crayon.
Q 29The Crayola Experience, originally the Crayola Factory, is in which Pennsylvania town?
Easton
The Crayola Experience opened in downtown Easton in 1996 as the Crayola Factory; later branches opened in Orlando, the Mall of America, Plano and Chandler.
Q 30Which colour company did Binney & Smith buy in 1926, bringing the colour wheel into Crayola?
Munsell
The Munsell system had five principal and five intermediate hues; Crayola kept a colour-wheel structure until 1990.