Paint books and coloring books emerged in the United States as part of the democratization of art process, inspired by a series of lectures by British artist Joshua Reynolds, and the works of Swiss educator Johann Pestalozzi and his student Friedrich.
Many educators concluded that all, regardless of background, students stood to benefit from art education as a means of enhancing their conceptual understanding of the tangible, developing their cognitive abilities, and improving skills that would be useful in finding a profession, for the children spiritual edification.
The McLoughlin Brothers are credited as the inventors of the coloring book. They continued to publish coloring books until the 1920s, when the McLoughlin Brothers became part of the Milton Bradley Company.
Another pioneer in the genre was Richard F. Outcault. He authored Buster Paint Book in 1907, featuring the character of Buster Brown, which he had invented in 1902. It was published by the Stokes Company. This launched a trend to use coloring books to advertise a wide variety of products, including coffee and pianos.
Until the 1930s, books were designed with the intent for them to be painted instead of colored. When crayons came into wide use in the 30s, books were still designed so that they could be painted or colored.
Coloring books have sometimes been used for political ends. In 1968 the Black Panther Coloring Book began circulating in the United States. Unlike actual Black Panther Party material, it was created as part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and distributed to white households as propaganda against the Party.
The coloring book depicted police as pigs and encouraged violence, stating that the only good pig is a dead pig.
The term and concept of the coloring book was adopted by the feminist artist Tee Corinne as a tool of female empowerment.
Corinne made pencil sketches of female genitalia, which she then inked and printed on card stock. She published a collection of them in 1975 as The Cunt Coloring Book.
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