Drawing & Sketching: Pencils

Graphite came into widespread use following the discovery of a large graphite deposit in Borrowdale, England in 1564. Graphite left a darker mark than lead, but was so soft and brittle that it required a holder. At first, sticks of graphite were wrapped in string. Later, the graphite was inserted into wooden sticks that had been hollowed-out by hand. The wood-cased pencil was born! The first mass-produced pencils were made in Nuremberg, Germany in 1662. There, an active pencil industry developed with famous companies like Faber-Castell established in 1761, Lyra, Staedtler and others growing throughout the 19th century industial revolution. Other early U.S. manufacturers that helped industrialize pencil making in the United States were Joseph Dixon Crucible Company (now Dixon Ticonderoga) and a number of factories established in New York and New Jersey towards the end of the 19th century by immigrants from the German industry including Faber Castell, Eberhard Faber, Eagle Pencil Company (Later Berol) and General Pencil Company.