Edwin Binney and his cousin C. Harold Smith inherited a pigment business in 1885 from Edwin's father Joseph and formed Binney & Smith. The business grew from Joseph Binney's Peekskill Chemical Works, founded in 1864 in upstate New York as a charcoal and lamp black company. Early products included red oxide pigment for barn paint and carbon black for car tires. In 1900, the company began producing slate school pencils in a mill along Bushkill Creek about 1 mile upstream from the 13th Street Bridge. In 1903, it produced the first box of eight Crayola® crayons, which sold for a nickel. The name Crayola® was coined by Edwin Binney's wife Alice from the French word for chalk and a root meaning oily. After the Pigment Division was sold in 1955, the company focused on art materials. In 1978, it moved most of its Pennsylvania manufacturing from facilities along Bushkill Creek to a plant in Forks Township. In 1996, the 100 billionth Crayola® crayon rolled off the production line, and that year the company also opened The Crayola FACTORY®, a 20,000 square foot creativity and visitors' center on Centre Square in Easton that became a cornerstone of downtown Easton's revitalization.
