After months of debate and not a little politically correct outcry, Crayola's Indian Red crayon has been renamed Chestnut.
Crayola, ever in support of teachers suggestions since the inception of the product in 1903, responded to complaints that students thought the name, Indian Red, described the skin color of American Indians. Crayola immediately responded to the first grumblings with the actual origins of the name -- it is based on a reddish-brown pigment commonly found near India, hence the name. But, quickly, Crayola decided that perhaps the name should be changed and asked consumers to make suggestions. 250,000 suggested names later from nearly 100,000 people, the final name, Chestnut, was chosen.
"We were looking for a name that would be helpful to teachers working in the classroom, and we thought Chestnut was appropriate," said company spokeswoman, Stacy Gabrielle.
The 155 people with the winning name have earned a place in Crayola color history and will be awarded a "Certificate of Crayon Authorship" and a 64-color crayon box containing the renamed crayon.
Chestnut will make its first public appearance in September and each successive year for a full production of 15 million crayons. This is only the third time since 1903 that the company has change a crayon color name. Introduced in its new 48-box in 1949, Prussian Blue was renamed Midnight Blue in 1958 because teachers felt that children no longer knew anything about Prussian history. Also in 1958, the new 64-box with a built-in sharpener was introduced with new colors Flesh and Indian Red. In 1962, Flesh was renamed Peach in deference to the fact that not everyone's skin is the same shade.
Of the 250,000 suggested names, there were several standouts such as Dr. Pepper, Ginger Spice, Baseball Mitt Brown, Hot Meatball Red and "the crayon formerly known as Indian Red," a nod to the rock musician formerly known as Prince.
Crayolas were first introduced in 1903 when Binney & Smith representatives were showing their new school products, slate pencils and dustless chalk, in local schools. They immediately recognized the need for better-quality, affordable wax crayons and seized the opportunity. Since the company already had industrial marking crayons, it was a simply matter to adapt them for use in schools by making them smaller and adding colored pigments to the paraffin wax. Soon after developing them, Binney & Smith sold the first box of eight Crayola crayons for one nickel. The box included black, brown, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, and green. Crayons were an instant success with children and teachers, continuing to this day.
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