Crayola Creators: Edwin Binney and C. Harold Smith
Chapter 1 All inAll in THE FAMILY THE FAMILY THE FAMILY THE FAMILY THE FAMILY How did a small charcoal business lead to one of the most successful toys ever The formula was a mix of opportunity teamwork and color The result was the Crayola crayon Its creators Harold Smith and Edwin Binney were cousins But the Crayola story really begins with Edwin’s father Joseph Joseph W Binney was born in England on December 6 1836 In the 1800s many people were moving to the United States It was known as The Land of Opportunity Joseph immigrated to the United States in 1860 Joseph’s sister Eliza decided to stay in England That same year she had a son His name was C Harold Smith In 1864 Joseph founded a factory near Peekskill New York It was called Peekskill Chemical Works The company packaged hardwood charcoal which was used for heating fuel It also manufactured lampblack from soot and whale oil Lampblack was used in everything from ink to shoe polish 4
Peekskill New York was one of the country’s early industrial centers Joseph soon met and married Annie Eliza Conklin They had eight children together Their son Edwin was born on November 24 1866 He attended public schools in Peekskill and New York City Meanwhile C Harold Smith spent his teenage years in New Zealand Then in 1878 he moved to the United States Together Edwin and Harold would make the world come alive with color 5
Chapter 2 BINNEY SMITH BINNEY SMITH BINNEY SMITH BINNEY SMITH BINNEY SMITH In 1880 Joseph moved the Peekskill Chemical Works’s headquarters to New York City He hired his nephew Harold as a salesman Soon after Edwin joined the company as a salesman too Besides charcoal and lampblack Peekskill Chemical Works made paint with red iron oxide Joseph taught Harold and Edwin everything about the business They learned about color pigments manufacturing marketing and sales Edwin and Harold worked well together They were looking for new ways to grow the business When Joseph retired in 1885 they took a new direction They changed 6 Farmers often bought Peekskill Chemical Works red paint for their barns
Carbon black is still used to dye inks paint and other materials the company’s name to Binney Smith The next year Edwin married Alice Stead in Brooklyn New York They had four children three girls and a boy Harold married Paula Smith Together they had a boy and a girl In the 1890s the company created a new pigment called carbon black Carbon black was much darker than lampblack It was used in dyes paint printing ink and shoe polish One of the main ingredients in carbon black was oil Oil had been discovered in Pennsylvania in the 1850s So the company had a local source for raw material Binney developed new products and expanded sales in the United States Smith traveled all over the world to find new markets for their products Thanks to the cousins complementary skills and efforts the company thrived Binney and Smith made a great team 7
