Love them or hate them, Paint By Numbers were a big hit in the 1950’s – this Washington Post obituary highlights the fad and man who created it, Don Robbins.
One woman recalled the enjoyment the kits brought to her mother and other relatives as they struggled with illness.
“Today, as I cruise the aisles of the resale shops, whenever I see the same finished pictures languishing in the bins under layers of dust,” she wrote, “I harken back immediately to the smells of oil paint, thinner, medicines, and high fevers.”