History
The first Crayola 64 box was introduced in 1958 on the "Captain Kangaroo" TV show. It was the first box with a built-in sharpener and introduced 16 new colors: aquamarine, blue gray, burnt orange, cadet blue, copper, forest green, goldenrod, Indian red, lavender, mulberry, navy blue, plum, raw sienna, raw umber, sepia and sky blue.
Crayola sold more than 200 million 64-crayon boxes in the first 50 years after its introduction. The box was added to both the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998.
Original Colors
The original 1958 Crayola 64-box included the following colors: apricot, aquamarine, bittersweet, black, blue, blue gray, blue green, blue violet, brick red, brown, burnt orange, burnt sienna, cadet blue, carnation pink, copper, cornflower, flesh, forest green, gold, goldenrod, gray, green, green blue, green yellow, Indian red, lavender, lemon yellow, magenta, mahogany, maize, maroon, melon, midnight blue, mulberry, navy blue, olive green, orange, orange red, orange yellow, orchid, periwinkle, pine green, plum, raw sienna, raw umber, red, red orange, red violet, salmon, sea green, sepia, silver, sky blue, spring green, tan, thistle, turquoise blue, violet (purple), violet blue, violet red, white, yellow, yellow green and yellow orange.
Current Colors
As of 2011, Crayola had retired or removed aquamarine, blue gray, copper, green blue, lemon yellow, maize, maroon, midnight blue, mulberry, navy blue, orange red, orange yellow, pine green, raw umber, thistle and violet blue from the box. These were replaced by asparagus, cerulean, dandelion, granny smith apple, indigo, macaroni and cheese, mauvelous, pacific blue, purple mountain's majesty, robin's egg blue, scarlet, tickle me pink, timberwolf, tumbleweed, wild strawberry and wisteria.
In addition, "flesh" was renamed "peach" in 1962 and "Indian red" was renamed "chestnut" in 1999.
Special Edition Boxes
For the 50th anniversary of the 64-crayon box, Crayola released its limited-edition 50th birthday boxes with eight special edition colors. These colors were named by children nationwide and included "super happy" yellow, "fun in the sun" orange, "giving tree" green, "bear hug" brown, "awesome" fuchsia, "happily ever after" blue, "famous" pink and "best friends" purple.