American Crayon Company - Indian Chalk Brand. That's Fly.

A major element in any classroom is white chalk - was then, is now. The American Crayon Company produced much of the school chalk during the last century in Sandusky, Ohio and Waltham, Massachusetts. Marketing for school room chalk in the early 1920s was so expansive that the company advertised in the Saturday Evening Post (December 16, 1922) with a theme of quality art education in a multi part ad series (one example above.)

The American Crayon Company went on to purchase more school and related supply vendors throughout the century and is known today as the Dixon Ticonderoga Company. Name ring a bell? It should. That's the Number 2 lead pencil people.

Back in the 1920s the packaging for a gross of chalk sticks consisted of a wooden dovetailed box (above) with a sliding top. The Indian chalk brand appeared on the side. This specimen complete with winged insect appeared recently at a farm estate auction near Traer, Iowa. That's fly. Know that.