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10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, a post which, for much of the 18th and 19th centuries and invariably since 1905, has been held by the Prime Minister.

Situated in Downing Street in the City of Westminster (Greater London), Number 10 is over three hundred years old and contains approximately one hundred rooms. A private residence occupies the third floor and there is a kitchen in the basement. The other floors contain offices and conference, reception, sitting and dining rooms where the Prime Minister works, and where government ministers, national leaders and foreign dignitaries are met and entertained. At the back is an interior courtyard and a terrace overlooking a garden of . Adjacent to St James's Park, Number 10 is near Buckingham Palace, the London residence of the British monarch, and the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of both houses of parliament.

Originally three houses, Number 10 was offered to Sir Robert Walpole by George II in 1732.  Walpole accepted on the condition that the gift was to the office of First Lord of the Treasury rather than to him personally. Walpole commissioned William Kent to join the three houses and it is this larger house that is known as "Number 10 Downing Street".

The arrangement was not an immediate success. Despite its size and convenient location near to Parliament, few early Prime Ministers lived there. Costly to maintain, neglected, and run-down, Number 10 was close to being demolished several times but the property survived and became linked with many statesmen and events in British history. In 1985 Margaret Thatcher said Number 10 had become "one of the most precious jewels in the national heritage". 

History of the building 

Original Number 10 

Number 10 Downing Street was originally three properties: a mansion overlooking St James's Park called "the House at the Back", a town house behind it and a cottage. The town house, from which the modern building gets its name, was one of several built by Sir George Downing between 1682 and 1684.

Downing, a notorious spy for Oliver Cromwell and later Charles II, invested in property and acquired considerable wealth.    In 1654, he purchased the lease on land south of St James's Park, adjacent to the House at the Back within walking distance of parliament. Downing planned to build a row of town houses "for persons of good quality to inhabit in ..."  The street on which he built them now bears his name, and the largest became part of Number 10 Downing Street.

Straightforward as the investment seemed, it proved otherwise. The Hampden family had a lease on the land that they refused to relinquish. Downing fought their claim, but failed and had to wait thirty years before he could build.  When the Hampden lease expired, Downing received permission to build on land further west to take advantage of more recent property developments. The new warrant issued in 1682 reads: "Sir George Downing ... [is authorised] to build new and more houses ... subject to the proviso that it be not built any nearer than 14 feet of the wall of the said Park at the West end thereof". Between 1682 and 1684, Downing built a cul-de-sac of two-storey town houses with coach-houses, stables and views of St James's Park. Over the years, the addresses changed several times. In 1787 Number 5 became "Number 10". 

Downing employed Sir Christopher Wren to design the houses. Although large, they were put up quickly and cheaply on soft soil with shallow foundations. The fronts were façades with lines painted on the surface imitating brick mortar. Winston Churchill wrote that Number 10 was "shaky and lightly built by the profiteering contractor whose name they bear". 

The upper end of the Downing Street cul-de-sac closed off the access to St James's Park, making the street quiet and private. An advertisement in 1720 described it as: "... a pretty open Place, especially at the upper end, where are four or five very large and well-built Houses, fit for Persons of Honour and Quality; each House having a pleasant Prospect into St James's Park, with a Tarras Walk".  The cul-de-sac had several distinguished residents: the Countess of Yarmouth lived at Number 10 between 1688 and 1689, Lord Lansdowne from 1692 to 1696 and the Earl of Grantham from 1699 to 1703.

Downing did not live in Downing Street.   In 1675 he retired to Cambridge, where he died in 1684, a few months after building was completed.  Downing's portrait  hangs in the entrance foyer of Number 10. 

History of the "House at the Back" before 1733 

The "House at the Back", the largest of the three houses that were combined to make Number 10, was a mansion constructed around 1530 next to Whitehall Palace. Rebuilt, expanded, and renovated many times since, it was originally one of several buildings that made up the "Cockpit Lodgings", so-called because they were attached to an octagonal structure used for cock-fighting. Early in the 17th century, the Cockpit was converted to a concert hall and theatre; after the Glorious Revolution, some of the first cabinet meetings were secretly held there. 

For many years, the "House at the Back" was the home of the Keeper of Whitehall Palace, Thomas Knevett, famous for capturing Guy Fawkes in 1605 and foiling his plot to assassinate James VI and I. The previous year, Knevett moved into a house next door, approximately where Number 10 is today.  

From this time, the "House at the Back" was usually occupied by members of the royal family or the government. Princess Elizabeth lived there from 1604 until 1613 when she married Frederick V, Elector Palatine and moved to Heidelberg. She was the grandmother of George, the Elector of Hanover, who became King of Great Britain in 1714, and the great-grandmother of George II, who presented the house to Walpole in 1732. 

George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, the general responsible for the restoration of the monarchy, lived there from 1660 until his death in 1671. As head of the Great Treasury Commission of 1667–1672, Albemarle transformed accounting methods and allowed the Crown greater control over expenses. His secretary, Sir George Downing, who built Downing Street, is thought to have created these changes. Albemarle is the first treasury minister to live in what became the home of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister. 

In 1671, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, took possession when he joined the Cabal Ministry. (The "B" in the acronym CABAL refers to Buckingham.) At considerable expense, Buckingham rebuilt the house. The result was a spacious mansion, lying parallel to Whitehall Palace with a view of St James Park from its garden. 

After Buckingham retired in 1676, Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, Charles II's daughter, moved in when she married Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield. The Crown authorised extensive rebuilding that included adding a storey, giving it three main floors, an attic and basement. This structure can be seen today as the rear section of Number 10.  (See Plan of the Premises Granted to the Earl and Countess of Lichfield in 1677)   The likely reason that repair was required is that the house had settled in the swampy ground near the Thames, causing structural damage.  Like Downing Street, it rested on a shallow foundation, a design error that caused problems until 1960 when the modern Number 10 was rebuilt on deep pilings. 

The Lichfields followed James II into exile after the Glorious Revolution. In 1690, William III and Mary II gave the "House at the Back" to Hendrik van Nassau-Ouwerkerk, a Dutch general who had assisted in securing the Crown for the Prince of Orange. Nassau, who Anglicised his named to "Overkirk", lived there until his death in 1708.

The "House at the Back" reverted to the Crown when Lady Overkirk died in 1720. The Treasury issued an order "for repairing and fitting it up in the best and most substantial manner" at a cost of £2,522. The work included: "The Back passage into Downing street to be repaired and a new door; a New Necessary House to be made; To take down the Useless passage formerly made for the Maids of Honour to go into Downing Street, when the Queen lived at the Cockpit; To New Cast a great Lead Cistern & pipes and to lay the Water into the house & a new frame for ye Cistern".  (See Buildings on the Site of the Cockpit and Number 10 Downing Street c1720) 

First politician and "head of government" in the house

Johann Caspar von Bothmer, Count Bothmer, Premier minister of the kingdom of Hanover, head of the German Chancery and adviser to George I and II, took up residency in 1720. Although Bothmer complained about "the ruinous Condition of the Premises",  he lived there until his death in 1732. Even though Count von Bothmer was not British he was the first politician and head of a government who resided in Downing Street No. 10.

First Lord's house: 1733–1735 

When Count Bothmar died, ownership of the "House at the Back" reverted to the Crown. George II took this opportunity to offer it to Sir Robert Walpole, often called the first Prime Minister, as a gift for his services to the nation: stabilising its finances, keeping it at peace and securing the Hanoverian succession. Coincidentally, the King had obtained the leases on two Downing Street properties, including Number 10, and added these to his proposed gift.

Walpole did not accept the gift for himself.  He proposed—and the King agreed—that the Crown give the properties to the Office of First Lord of the Treasury. Walpole would live there as the incumbent First Lord, but would vacate it for the next one. 

To enlarge the new house, Walpole persuaded Mr Chicken, the tenant of a cottage next door, to move to another house in Downing Street.  This small house and the mansion at the back were then incorporated into Number 10. Walpole commissioned William Kent to convert them into one building. Kent joined the larger houses by building a two-storey structure between them, consisting of one long room on the ground floor and several above. The remaining interior space was converted into a courtyard. He connected the Downing Street houses with a corridor.

Having united the structures, Kent gutted and rebuilt the interior. He then surmounted the third storey of the house at the back with a pediment. To allow Walpole quicker access to Parliament, Kent closed the north side entrance from St James's Park, and made the door in Downing Street the main entrance.

The rebuilding took three years. On 23 September 1735, the London Daily Post announced that: "Yesterday the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole, with his Lady and Family, removed from their House in St James's Square, to his new House, adjoining to the Treasury in St James's Park".  The cost of conversion is unknown. Originally estimated at £8,000, the final cost probably exceeded £20,000. 

Walpole did not enter through the now-famous door; that would not be installed until forty years later. Kent's door was modest, belying the spacious elegance beyond. The First Lord's new, albeit temporary, home had sixty rooms, with hardwood and marble floors, crown moulding, elegant pillars and marble mantelpieces; those on the west side with beautiful views of St James's Park. One of the largest rooms was a study measuring forty feet by twenty with enormous windows overlooking St James's Park. "My Lord's Study"  (as Kent labelled it in his drawings) would later become the Cabinet Room where Prime Ministers meet with the Cabinet ministers. 

Shortly after moving in, Walpole ordered that a portion of the land outside his study be converted into a terrace and garden. Letters patent issued in April 1736 state that: "... a piece of garden ground situated in his Majesty's park of St James's, & belonging & adjoining to the house now inhabited by the Right Honorable the Chancellor of His Majesty's Exchequer, hath been lately made & fitted up at the Charge ... of the Crown".

The same document confirmed that Number 10 Downing Street was: "meant to be annexed & united to the Office of his Majesty's Treasury & to be & to remain for the Use & Habitation of the first Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury for the time being". 

A "vast, awkward house": 1735–1902 

Walpole lived in Number 10 until 1742. Although he had accepted it on behalf of future First Lords of the Treasury, it would be 21 years before any of his successors chose to live there; the five who followed Walpole preferred their own homes. This was the pattern until the beginning of the 20th century. Of the 31 First Lords from 1735 to 1902, only 16 (including Walpole) lived in Number 10. 

One reason many First Lords chose not to live in Number 10 was that most were peers who owned homes superior in size and quality. To them, Number 10 was unimpressive. Their "possession" of the house, albeit temporary, was a perk they could use as a political reward. Most lent it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, others to lesser officials, and still others to friends or relatives.      

Another reason was that Number 10 was a hazardous place to live. Prone to sinking because it was built on soft soil and a shallow foundation, floors buckled, walls and chimneys cracked; it became unsafe and frequently required repairs. In 1766, for example, Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pointed out that the house was in a dilapidated condition. His architect's letter to the Treasury read: "… we have caused the House in Downing Street belonging to the Treasury to be surveyed, & find the Walls of the old part of the said House next the street to be much decayed, the Floors & Chimneys much sunk from the level".  Townsend ordered extensive repairs, but they were still incomplete eight years later. A note from Lord North to the Office of Works, dated September 1774, asks that the work on the front of the house, "which was begun by a Warrant from the Treasury dated 9 August 1766", should be finished. (See Kent's Treasury and No. 10, Downing Street, circa 1754.) 

Treasury officials complained that the building cost too much to maintain; some suggested that it be razed and a new house constructed on the site or elsewhere. In 1782, the Board of Works, reporting on "the dangerous state of the old part of the House", stated that "no time be lost in taking down said building".  In 1783, the Duke of Portland moved out because it was once again in need of repair. A committee found that the money spent so far was insufficient. This time the Board of Works declared that "the Repairs, Alterations & Additions at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's House will amount to the sum of £5,580, exclusive of the sum for which they already have His Majesty's Warrant. And praying a Warrant for the said sum of £5,580—and also praying an Imprest of that sum to enable them to pay the Workmen". This proved to be a gross underestimate; the final bill was over £11,000. The Morning Herald fumed about the expense: "£500 pounds p.a. preceding the Great Repair, and £11,000 the Great Repair itself! So much has this extraordinary edifice cost the country – For one moiety [one half] of the sum a much better dwelling might have been purchased!"  (See Plan of the Design for Number 10 c1781)  

A few enjoyed living in Number 10. Lord North, who conducted the war against the American Revolution, lived there happily with his family from 1767 to 1782. William Pitt the Younger, who made it his home for twenty years—longer than any First Lord before or since—from 1783 to 1801 and from 1804 to 1806, referred to it as "My vast, awkward house".  While there, Pitt reduced the national debt, formed the Triple Alliance against France, and won passage of the Act of Union that created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Fredrick Robinson, Lord Goderich took a special liking to the house in the late 1820s; he spent state funds lavishly remodelling the interior. 

Nevertheless, for 70 years following Pitt's death in 1806, Number 10 was rarely used as the First Lord's residence. From 1834 to 1877, it was either vacant or used only for offices and meetings.

Downing Street declined at the turn of the 19th century surrounded with run-down buildings, dark alleys, crime and prostitution. Earlier, the government had taken over the other Downing Street houses: the Colonial Office occupied Number 14 in 1798: the Foreign Office was at Number 16 and the houses on either side; the West India Department was in Number 18 and the Tithe Commissioners in Number 20. The houses deteriorated from neglect, became unsafe, and one by one were torn down. By 1857, Downing Street's town houses were all gone except for Number 10, Number 11 (customarily the Chancellor of the Exchequer's residence) and Number 12 (used as offices for Government Whips). In 1879, a fire destroyed the upper floors of Number 12; it was renovated but only as a single-storey structure.   (See Numbers 10, 11, and 12 Downing Street First Floor Plan  and Ground Floor Plan) 

Revival and recognition: 1902–1960 

When Lord Salisbury retired in 1902, his nephew, Arthur James Balfour, became Prime Minister. It was an easy transition: he was already First Lord of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Commons, and he was already living in Number 10. Balfour revived the custom that Number 10 is the First Lord and Prime Minister's official residence. It has remained the custom since.
However, there have been numerous times when prime ministers have unofficially lived elsewhere out of necessity or preference. Winston Churchill for example had a great affection for Number 10, but he grudgingly slept in the bunkered Annex of Number 10 for his safety during World War II. He rarely slept in his underground bedroom in the Cabinet War Rooms.  To reassure the people that his government was functioning normally, he insisted on being seen entering and leaving Number 10 occasionally.  Harold Wilson, during his second ministry from 1974 to 1976, lived in his home in Lord North Street because Mrs. Wilson wanted "a proper home".  However, recognising the symbolic importance of Number 10, he worked and held meetings there and entertained guests in the State Dining Room.

For most of his Premiership, Tony Blair lived in the more spacious residence above Number 11 to accommodate his large family. In May 2010, it was reported that David Cameron would also take up actual residence above Number 11, and his Chancellor, George Osborne, above Number 10. 

Despite these exceptions, Number 10 has been known as the Prime Minister's official home for over one hundred years. By the turn of the 20th century, photography and the penny press had linked Number 10 in the public mind with the Premiership. The introduction of films and television would strengthen this association. Pictures of prime ministers with distinguished guests at the door became commonplace. With or without the Prime Minister present, visitors had their picture taken. Suffragettes posed in front of the door when they petitioned H. H. Asquith for women's rights in 1913, a picture that became famous and was circulated around the world. In 1931, Mohandas Gandhi, wearing the traditional homespun dhoti, posed leaving Number 10 after meeting with Ramsay MacDonald to discuss India's independence.  This picture, too, became famous especially in India. The freedom fighters could see their leader had been received in the Prime Minister's home. Couse's elegant, understated door—stark black, framed in cream white with a bold white "10" clearly visible—was the perfect backdrop to record such events. Prime Ministers made historic announcements from the front step. Waving the Anglo-German Agreement of Friendship, Neville Chamberlain proclaimed "Peace With Honour" in 1938 from Number 10 after his meeting with Adolf Hitler in Munich.  During World War II, Churchill was photographed many times emerging confidently from Number 10 holding up two fingers in the sign for "Victory".

The symbol of British government, Number 10 became a gathering place for protesters. Emmeline Pankhurst and other suffragette leaders stormed Downing Street in 1908;  anti-Vietnam War protestors marched there in the 1960s, as did anti-Iraq and Afghanistan War protestors in the 2000s. Number 10 became an obligatory stop in every tourist's sightseeing trip to London. Ordinary people, not only British but foreign tourists, posed smiling and laughing in front of its famous door.

Rebuilding: 1960–1990 

By the middle of the 20th century, Number 10 was falling apart again. The deterioration had been obvious for some time. The number of people allowed in the upper floors was limited for fear the bearing walls would collapse. The staircase had sunk several inches; some steps were buckled and the balustrade was out of alignment. Dry rot was widespread throughout. The interior wood in the Cabinet Room's double columns was like sawdust. Skirting boards, doors, sills and other woodwork were riddled and weakened with disease. After reconstruction had begun, miners dug down into the foundations and found that the huge wooden beams supporting the house had decayed.  

In 1958, a committee under the chairmanship of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres was appointed by Harold Macmillan to investigate the condition of the house and make recommendations. In the committee's report there was some discussion of tearing down the building and constructing an entirely new residence. But because the Prime Minister's home had become an icon of British architecture like Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, the committee recommended that Number 10 (and Numbers 11 and 12) should be rebuilt using as much of the original materials as possible. The interior would be photographed, measured, disassembled, and restored. A new foundation with deep pilings would be laid and the original buildings reassembled on top of it, allowing for much needed expansion and modernisation. Any original materials that were beyond repair – such as the pair of double columns in the Cabinet Room – would be replicated in detail. This was a formidable undertaking: the three buildings contained over 200 rooms spread out over five floors.  The architect Raymond Erith carried out the design for this painstaking work  and the contractor that undertook it was John Mowlem & Co. 
The Times reported initially that the cost for the project would be £400,000. After more careful studies were completed, it was concluded that the "total cost was likely to be £1,250,000" and would take two years to complete.  In the end, the cost was close to £3,000,000 and took almost three years due in large part to 14 labour strikes. There were also delays when archaeological excavations uncovered important artefacts dating from Roman, Saxon and medieval times.  Macmillan lived in Admiralty House during the reconstruction.

The new foundation was made of steel-reinforced concrete with pilings sunk 6 ft to 18 ft.  The "new" Number 10 consisted of about 60% new materials; the remaining 40% was either restored or replicas of originals. Many rooms and sections of the new building were reconstructed exactly as they were in the old Number 10. These included: the garden floor, the door and entrance foyer, the stairway, the hallway to the Cabinet Room, the Cabinet Room, the garden and terrace, the Small and Large State Rooms and the three reception rooms. The staircase, however, was rebuilt and simplified. Steel was hidden inside the columns in the Pillared Drawing Room to support the floor above. The upper floors were modernised and the 3rd floor extended over Numbers 11 and 12 to allow more living space. As many as 40 coats of paint were stripped from the elaborate cornices in the main rooms revealing details unseen for almost 200 years in some cases.

When builders examined the exterior façade, they discovered that the black colour visible even in photographs from the mid-19th century was misleading; the bricks were actually yellow. The black appearance was the product of two centuries of pollution. To preserve the 'traditional' look of recent times, the newly cleaned yellow bricks were painted black to resemble their well-known appearance.   The thin tuckpointing mortar between the bricks is not painted, and so contrasts with the bricks.

Although the reconstruction was generally considered an architectural triumph, Erith was disappointed. He complained openly during and after the project that the government had altered his design to save money. Erith described the numbers on the front, intended to be based on historical models, as 'a mess' and 'completely wrong' to a fellow historian.  "I am heart broken", he said, "by the result ... the whole project has been a frightful waste of money because it just has not been done properly. The Ministry of Works has insisted on economy after economy. I am bitterly disappointed with what has happened". 

Erith's concerns proved justified. Within a few years, dry rot was discovered, especially in the main rooms due to inadequate waterproofing and a broken water pipe. Extensive reconstruction again had to be undertaken in the late 1960s to resolve these problems.  Further extensive repairs and remodelling, commissioned by Margaret Thatcher, were completed in the 1980s under the direction of Erith's associate, Quinlan Terry. 

The work done by Erith and Terry in the 1960s and 1980s represent the most extensive remodelling of Number 10 in recent times. Since 1990 when the Terry reconstruction was completed, repairing, redecorating, remodelling, and updating the house has been ongoing as needed. The IRA mortar attack in February 1991 led to extensive work being done to repair the damage (mostly to the garden and exterior walls) and to improve security. In the summer of 1993 windows were rebuilt and in 1995 computer cables installed. In 1997, the building was remodelled to provide extra space for the Prime Minister's greatly increased staff.  To accommodate their large families, both Tony Blair and David Cameron chose to live in the private residence above Number 11 rather than the smaller one above Number 10. In 2010, the Camerons completely modernised the 50-year-old private kitchen in Number 11. 

Rooms and special features 

Front door and entrance hall 

Most of the modern exterior shape and features of Number 10 were created by Kent when he combined the house at the back with the Downing Street townhouses in 1735.  Its outside appearance is basically the same today as it was when he completed his work. An exception is the now famous front door entrance.

Number 10's door is the product of the renovations Townsend ordered in 1766; it was probably not completed until 1772. Executed in the Georgian style by the architect Kenton Couse, it is unassuming and narrow, consisting of a single white stone step leading to a modest brick front. The small, six-panelled door, originally made of black oak, is surrounded by cream-coloured casing and adorned with a semicircular fanlight window. Painted in white, between the top and middle sets of panels, is the number "10". The zero of the number "10" is painted in a very eccentric style, in a 37° angle anticlockwise. One theory is that this is in fact a capital 'O' as found in the Roman's Trajan alphabet that was used by the Ministry of Works at the time.  A black iron knocker in the shape of a lion's head is between the two middle panels; below the knocker is a brass letter box with the inscription "First Lord of the Treasury". The doorbell is inscribed with "PUSH" although is rarely used in practice. A black ironwork fence with spiked newel posts runs along the front of the house and up each side of the step to the door. The fence rises above the step into a double-swirled archway, supporting an iron gas lamp surmounted by a crown.  (See The Entrance Door c1930: As seen from the outside)  

After the IRA mortar attack in 1991, the original black oak door was replaced by a blast-proof steel one. Regularly removed for refurbishment and replaced with a replica, it is so heavy that it takes eight men to lift it. The brass letterbox still bears the legend "First Lord of the Treasury". The original door was put on display in the Churchill Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms.

The door cannot be opened from the outside; there is always someone inside to unlock the door.   

Beyond the door, Couse installed black and white marble tiles in the entrance hall that are still in use. A guard's chair designed by Chippendale sits in one corner. Once used when policemen sat on watch outside in the street, it has an unusual "hood" designed to protect them from the wind and cold and a drawer underneath where hot coals were placed to provide warmth. Scratches on the right arm were caused by their pistols rubbing up against the leather.

Couse also added a bow front to the small cottage—formerly Mr. Chicken's house—incorporated into Number 10 in Walpole's time. (See The Entrance Door c1930: As seen from inside showing the black and white marble floor and the door providing access to Number 11)  

Main staircase 

When William Kent rebuilt the interior of Number 10 between 1732 and 1734, his craftsmen created a stone triple staircase with no visible supports in the main section. With a wrought iron balustrade embellished with a scroll design and mahogany handrail, it rises from the garden floor to the third floor. Kent's staircase is the first architectural feature visitors see as they enter Number 10. Black and white engravings and photographs of all the past Prime Ministers decorate the wall; they are rearranged slightly to make room for a new picture of the most recent former Prime Minister. There are two photographs of Winston Churchill.   At the bottom of the staircase are group photographs of Prime Ministers with their Cabinet ministers and representatives to imperial conferences. (See The Main Stairway c1930 General view showing portraits of the Prime Ministers  and Detail of the Wrought Iron Balustrade )   (See also Simon Schama's Tour of Downing Street. Pt4: The Staircase )

Cabinet Room 

In Kent's design for the enlarged Number 10, the Cabinet Room was a simple rectangular space with enormous windows. As part of the renovations begun in 1783, it was extended, giving the space its modern appearance. Probably not completed until 1796,  this alteration was achieved by removing the east wall and rebuilding it several feet inside the adjoining secretaries' room. At the entrance, a screen of two pairs of Corinthian columns was erected (to carry the extra span of the ceiling) supporting a moulded entablature that wraps around the room. Robert Taylor, the architect who executed this concept, was knighted on its completion.  The resulting small space, framed by the pillars, serves as an anteroom to the larger area. Hendrick Danckerts' painting "The Palace of Whitehall" (shown at the beginning of this article) usually hangs in the ante-room.  It also contains two large bookcases that house the Prime Minister's Library; Cabinet members traditionally donate to the collection on leaving office a tradition that began with Ramsay MacDonald in 1931.   

Although Kent intended the First Lord to use this space as his study, it has rarely served that purpose; it has almost always been the Cabinet room. There have been a few exceptions. Stanley Baldwin used the Cabinet Room as his office. A few Prime Ministers, such as Tony Blair, occasionally worked at the Cabinet Room table. Painted off-white with large floor to ceiling windows along one of the long walls, the room is light and airy. Three brass chandeliers hang from the high ceiling. The Cabinet table, purchased during the Gladstone era, dominates the room. The modern boat-shaped top, introduced by Harold Macmillan in the late 1950s, is supported by huge original oak legs. The table is surrounded by carved, solid mahogany chairs that also date from the Gladstone era. The Prime Minister's chair, the only one with arms, is situated midway along one side in front of the marble fireplace, facing the windows; when not in use, it is positioned at an angle for easy access.  The only picture in the room is a copy of a portrait of Sir Robert Walpole by Jean-Baptiste van Loo hanging over the fireplace.  Each Cabinet member is allocated a chair based on order of seniority. Blotters inscribed with their titles mark their places.

The First Lord has no designated office space in Number 10; each has chosen one of the adjoining rooms as his or her private office.

State Drawing Rooms 

Number 10 has three inter-linked State Drawing rooms: the Pillared Drawing Room, the Terracotta Drawing Room and the White Drawing Room. (See the three state drawing rooms. )

Pillared State Drawing Room 

The largest is the Pillared Room thought to have been created in 1796 by Taylor. Measuring 37 ft long by 28 ft wide, it takes its name from the twin Ionic pilasters with straight pediments at one end. Today, there is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I over the fireplace; during the Thatcher Ministry (1979–1990), a portrait of William Pitt by Romney was hung there.

A Persian carpet covers almost the entire floor. A copy of a 16th-century original now kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum, there is an inscription woven into it that reads: "I have no refuge in the world other than thy threshold. My head has no protection other than this porchway. The work of a slave of the holy place, Maqsud of Kashan in the year 926" (the Islamic year corresponding to 1520). 

In the restoration conducted in the late 1980s, Quinlan Terry restored the fireplace. Executed in the Kentian style, the small Ionic pilasters in the over-mantel are miniature duplicates of the large Ionic pillars in the room. The Ionic motif is also found in the door surrounds and panelling. 

Sparsely furnished with a few chairs and sofas around the walls, the Pillared Room is usually used to receive guests before they go into the State Dining Room. However, it is sometimes used for other purposes that require a large open space. International agreements have been signed in this room. Tony Blair entertained the England Rugby Union team in the Pillared Room after they won the World Cup in 2003. John Logie Baird gave Ramsay MacDonald a demonstration of his invention, the television, in this room.   (See The Pillared Drawing Room c1927 ) 

Terracotta State Drawing Room 

The Terracotta Room is the middle of the three drawing rooms. It was used as the dining room when Sir Robert Walpole was Prime Minister. The name changes according to the colour it is painted. When Margaret Thatcher came to power it was the Blue Room; she had it re-decorated and renamed the Green Room. It is now painted terracotta.

In the renovation of the 1980s Quinlan Terry introduced large Doric order columns to this room in the door surrounds and designed a very large Palladian overmantel for the fireplace with small double Doric columns on each side with the royal arms above. Terry also added an ornate gilded ceiling to give the rooms a more stately look. Carved into the plasterwork above the door leading to the Pillared Room is a tribute to Margaret Thatcher: a straw-carrying 'thatcher'. 

White State Drawing Room 

The White State Drawing room was, until the 1940s, used by Prime Ministers and their partners for their private use. It was here that Edward Heath kept his grand piano. It is often used as the backdrop for television interviews and is in regular use as a meeting room for Downing Street staff. The room links through to the Terracotta Room next door. In the reconstruction during the late 1980s, Quinlan Terry used Corinthian columns and added ornate Baroque-style central ceiling mouldings and corner mouldings of the four national flowers of the United Kingdom: rose (England), thistle (Scotland), daffodil (Wales) and shamrock (Northern Ireland). 

State Dining Room 

When Frederick Robinson (later Lord Goderich), became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1823, he decided to leave a personal legacy to the nation. To this end, he employed Sir John Soane, the distinguished architect who had designed the Bank of England and many other famous buildings, to build a State Dining Room for Number 10. Begun in 1825 and completed in 1826 at a cost of £2,000, the result is a spacious room with oak panelling and reeded mouldings. Accessed through the first floor, its vaulted, arched ceiling rises up through the next so that it actually occupies two floors. Measuring 42 ft by 26 ft, it is the largest room in Number 10. Soane was the guest of honour when the dining room was first used on 4 April 1826.

The room is usually furnished with a table surrounded by 20 reproduction Adam style chairs originally made for the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro. For larger gatherings, a horseshoe-shaped table is brought in that will accommodate up to 65 guests. On these occasions, the table is set with the Silver Trust Silver set given to Downing Street in the 1990s. (See the State Dining room with the Silver Trust Silver in use for a luncheon ) Above the fireplace, overlooking the room, is a massive portrait by John Shackleton of George II, the king who originally gave the building to the First Lord of the Treasury in 1732.  Celebrity chefs such as Nigella Lawson have cooked for Prime Ministers' guests using the small kitchen next door. Entering through the Small Dining Room, Blair used this room for his monthly press conferences.    (See Simon Schama's Tour of Downing Street. Pt 3: The Dining Room 
(See The State Dining Room c1930: View toward the entrance   and View from the entrance  and also a more modern view ) 

Great kitchen 

The great kitchen located in the basement was another part of the renovations begun in 1783, probably also under the direction of Robert Taylor. Seldom seen by anyone other than staff, the space is two storeys high with a huge arched window and vaulted ceiling. Traditionally, it has always had a chopping block work table in the centre that is 14 ft long, 3 ft wide and 5 in thick. (See The Kitchen c1930 View showing the table, window and ceiling )

Smaller Dining or Breakfast Room 

Above Taylor's vaulted kitchen, between the Pillared Room and the State Dining room, Soane created a Smaller Dining Room (sometimes called the Breakfast Room) that still exists. To build it, Soane removed the chimney from the kitchen to put a door in the room. He then moved the chimney to the east side, running a Y-shaped split flue inside the walls up either side of one of the windows above. The room therefore has a unique architectural feature: over the fireplace there is a window instead of the usual chimney breast.

With its flat unadorned ceiling, simple mouldings and deep window seats, the Small Dining Room is intimate and comfortable. Usually furnished with a mahogany table seating only eight, Prime Ministers have often used this room when dining with family or when entertaining special guests on more personal state occasions.  (See the Small Dining or Breakfast Room c1927. The double doors behind the table lead to the State Dining Room. ) 

Terrace and garden 

The terrace and garden were constructed in 1736 shortly after Walpole moved into Number 10. The terrace, extending across the back, provides a full view of St James's Park. The garden is dominated by an open lawn of  that wraps around Numbers 10 and 11 in an L-shape. No longer "fitted with variety Walle fruit and diverse fruit trees" as it was in the 17th century, there is now a centrally located flower bed around a holly tree surrounded by seats. Tubs of flowers line the steps from the terrace; around the walls are rose beds with flowering and evergreen shrubs.  (See North elevation of Number 10 with steps leading to the garden )  The terrace and garden have provided a casual setting for many gatherings of First Lords with foreign dignitaries, Cabinet ministers, guests, and staff. Prime Minister Tony Blair, for example, hosted a farewell reception in 2007 for his staff on the terrace. John Major announced his 1995 resignation as leader of the Conservative Party in the garden. Churchill called his secretaries the "garden girls" because their offices overlook the garden.  It was also the location of the first press conference announcing the Coalition Government between David Cameron's Conservatives and Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats. 

Furnishings 

Number 10 is filled with fine paintings, sculptures, busts and furniture. Only a small number are permanent features; the rest are on loan from various sources. About half belongs to the Government Art Collection; the remainder is on loan from private collectors and from public galleries such as the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery.  (See works from the Government Art Collection currently on display at Number 10 )

The art work is continually changing; a regular annual turnover of about a dozen paintings has been established. However, there are sometimes dramatic changes whenever a new Prime Minister takes office and redecorates according to his or her individual taste.  Edward Heath borrowed French paintings from the National Gallery and was loaned two Renoirs from a private collector. When Margaret Thatcher arrived in 1979 she insisted that the artwork had to be British and that it celebrate "British achievers". As a former chemist, she took pleasure in devoting the Small Dining Room to a collection of portraits of British scientists, such as Joseph Priestley and Humphry Davy. During the 1990s John Major converted the first floor anteroom into a small gallery of modern art, mostly British. He also introduced several paintings by John Constable and J. M. W. Turner, Britain's two best known 19th century artists, and cricketing paintings by Archibald Stuart-Wortley including a portrait of one of England's most celebrated batsmen W. G. Grace. 

In addition to outstanding artwork, Number 10 contains many exceptional pieces of furniture either owned by the house or on loan. One of the most striking and unusual is the Chippendale hooded guard's chair already mentioned that sits in a corner of the entrance hall. To its left is a long case clock by Benson of Whitehaven. A similar clock by Samuel Whichcote of London stands in the Cabinet anteroom. The White State Drawing Room contains elegant Adams furniture. The Green State Drawing Room contains mostly Chippendale furniture including a card table that belonged to Clive of India and a mahogany desk that is thought to have belonged to William Pitt the Younger and used by him during the Napoleonic Wars. In addition to the large carpet previously described, the Pillared State Drawing Room also contains a marble-topped table by Kent. The State Dining Room contains an elegant mahogany sideboard by Adam.  

Security after the 1991 bombing 

For most of its history, Downing Street was accessible to the public. There was some security at Number 10 but it was minimal: a police officer standing guard. The front door has no keyhole on the outside. A second officer is on duty in the entrance hall to open it for the Prime Minister.

Gates were installed at both ends of the street during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher due to terrorist threats. On 7 February 1991, the Provisional IRA used a van they parked in Whitehall to launch a mortar shell at Number 10. It exploded in the back garden, while the prime minister John Major was holding a Cabinet meeting. Major moved to Admiralty House while repairs were completed. Because of this attack, heavier security measures were imposed, if not always visible. A guardhouse stands at the gated entrance accommodating several uniformed armed police. The Metropolitan Police Service's DPG (Diplomatic Protection Group) provides protection for ministers in London, acting on intelligence from MI5.

250th anniversary: 1985 

Number 10 became 250 years old in 1985. To celebrate, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher hosted a grand dinner at Number 10 in the State Dining Room for her living predecessors—Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, and James Callaghan—and Elizabeth II.  Also in attendance were representatives of the families of every 20th century Prime Minister since Asquith, including Lady Olwen Carey Evans (daughter of Lloyd George), Lady Leonora Howard (daughter of Stanley Baldwin), and Clarissa Avon (widow of Anthony Eden and niece of Winston Churchill). 

The same year, the Leisure Circle published Christopher Jones' book No. 10 Downing Street, The Story of a House. The foreword is a letter from Thatcher in which she summarises the feelings that she has for Number 10: "How much I wish that the public ... could share with me the feeling of Britain's historic greatness which pervades every nook and cranny of this complicated and meandering old building ... All Prime Ministers are intensely aware that, as tenants and stewards of No. 10 Downing Street, they have in their charge one of the most precious jewels in the nation's heritage".

Prime Minister's Office 

The Prime Minister's Office, for which the terms Downing Street and Number 10 are synonymous, lies within the 10 Downing Street building and is part of the Cabinet Office. It is staffed by a mix of career Civil Servants and Special Advisers. The highest ranking Civil Servant position is the Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, currently Simon Case; the most senior Special Adviser post is the Downing Street Chief of Staff, currently held by Edward Llewellyn. Though Number 10 is formally part of the Cabinet Office, it reports to the Cabinet Secretary, which is currently Sir Jeremy Heywood.

The office was reorganised in 2001 into 3 directorates:

* Policy and government
*:Took over the functions of the Private office and policy unit. Prepares advice for the PM and coordinates development and implementation of policy across departments
* Communication and strategy, contains three units:
** Press office: responsible for relations with the media
** Strategic communications unit
** Research and information unit: provides factual information to No. 10
* Government and political relations: Handles party/public relations

Changes were intended to strengthen the PM's office. However, some commentators have suggested that Blair's reforms have created something similar to a 'Prime Ministers' department.  The reorganisation brought about the fusion of the old Prime Minister's Office and other Cabinet Office teams, with a number of units (including the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit) now reporting directly into the Prime Minister's Office. Since 2005, Number 10s Direct Communication Unit has not used its staff's real names on signed correspondence to MPs and members of the public; this is for security reasons. 

However, the Institute for Government has written that the Cabinet Office (of which the Prime Minister's Office is a component) "is a long way from becoming a fully fledged premier's department", primarily based on the fact that the Prime Minister "largely lacks the direct policy responsibilities, either in statute or by convention under the Royal Prerogative, possessed by secretaries of state, who have substantial budgets voted to them by Parliament." White is an achromatic color, a color without hue.  An incoming light to the human eye that stimulates all its three types of color sensitive cone cells in nearly equal amounts results in white. White is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone and other common minerals. In many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good,  honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new,  neutrality, and exactitude. 

In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, and Romans wore a white toga as a symbol of citizenship.  In the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity; the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning.  It sometimes symbolizes royalty; it was the color of the French kings (black being the color of the queens) and of the monarchist movement after the French Revolution as well as of the movement called the White Russians (not to be confounded with Belarus, literally "White Russia") who fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War (1917–1922).   Greek and Roman temples were faced with white marble, and beginning in the 18th century, with the advent of neoclassical architecture,  white became the most common color of new churches,  capitols and other government buildings, especially in the United States. It was also widely used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity and strength.

White is an important color for almost all world religions. The Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566, as a symbol of purity and sacrifice.  In Islam, and in the Shinto religion of  Japan,  it is worn by pilgrims;  and by the Brahmins in India. In Western cultures and in Japan, white is the most common color for wedding dresses, symbolizing purity and virginity. In many Asian cultures, white is also the color of mourning.

The white color on television screens and computer monitors is created with the RGB color model by mixing red, green and blue light at equal intensities.

White in nature and culture

File:Alps.jpg|Ice and snow. The Weisshorn ("white mountain"), in the high Alps.
File:Milk glass.jpg|A glass of milk
File:Cloud.jpg|Cumulus clouds
File:Taj Mahal (Edited).jpeg|White marble - the Taj Mahal.
File: Ivory cover of the Lorsch Gospels, c. 810, Carolingian, Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg| Ivory cover of the Lorsch Gospels, circa 810 AD,  (Victoria and Albert Museum, London.)
File:Three Maries.jpg|Alabaster statue of the three Maries, (circa 1450), Warsaw Museum.
File:Andalusian.jpg|A white Andalusian horse. White is commonly associated with innocence, perfection and purity.
File:Polar bear with young - ANWR.jpg|Polar bear with young, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. 
File:Douvres (6).JPG|The White Cliffs of Dover are composed of chalk, or calcium carbonate.

In nature,  snow and clouds appear white because they are composed of water droplets or ice crystals mixed with air; when white sunlight enters snow, very little of the spectrum is absorbed; almost all of the light is reflected or scattered by the air and water molecules, so the snow appears to be the color of sunlight, white.  Beaches with sand containing high amounts of quartz or eroded limestone also appear white, since quartz and limestone reflect or scatter sunlight, rather than absorbing it. Tropical white sand beaches may also have a high quantity of white calcium carbonate from tiny bits of seashells ground to fine sand by the action of the waves.  An individual that has an aversion or hatred for the color white is called a leukophobe. 

Etymology 

The word white continues Old English ', ultimately from a Common Germanic ' also reflected in OHG ', ON ', Goth. '. The root is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language ', surviving also in Sanskrit ' "to be white or bright"  and Slavonic ' "light".  
The Icelandic word for white, ', is directly derived from the Old Norse form of the word '.
Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz ("white, bright, blinding"), borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, which provided the source for Romance words for "white" (Catalan, Occitan and French blanc, Spanish blanco, Italian bianco, Galician-Portuguese branco, etc.). The antonym of white is black.

Some non-European languages have a wide variety of terms for white. The Inuit language has seven different words for seven different nuances of white.  Sanskrit has specific words for bright white, the white of teeth, the white of sandalwood, the white of the autumn moon, the white of silver, the white of cow's milk, the white of pearls, the white of a ray of sunlight, and the white of stars.  Japanese has six different words, depending upon brilliance or dullness, or if the color is inert or dynamic.

White in history and art 

The Ancient World

White was one of the first colors used by Paleolithic artists; they used  calcite or chalk,  sometimes as a background, sometimes as a highlight, along with charcoal and red and yellow ochre in their vivid cave paintings. 

In ancient Egypt, white was connected with the goddess Isis. The priests and priestesses of Isis dressed only in white linen, and it was used to wrap mummies. 

In Greece and other ancient civilizations, white was often associated with mother's milk. In Greek mythology, the chief god Zeus was nourished at the breast of the nymph Amalthea.  In the Talmud, milk was one of four sacred substances, along with wine, honey, and the rose. 

The ancient Greeks saw the world in terms of darkness and light, so white was a fundamental color.  According to Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, Apelles (4th century BC) and the other famous painters of ancient Greece used only four colors in their paintings; white, red, yellow and black;  For painting, the Greeks used lead white, made by a long and laborious process.

A plain white toga, known as a toga virilis,  was worn for ceremonial occasions by all Roman citizens over the age of 14–18. Magistrates and certain priests wore a toga praetexta, with a broad purple stripe.
In the time of the Emperor Augustus, no Roman man was allowed to appear in the Roman forum without a toga.

The ancient Romans had two words for white; albus, a plain white, (the source of the word albino); and candidus, a brighter white. A man who wanted public office in Rome wore a white toga brightened with chalk, called a toga candida, the origin of the word candidate. The Latin word candere meant to shine, to be bright. It was the origin of the words candle and candid. 

In ancient Rome, the priestesses of the goddess Vesta dressed in white linen robes, a white palla or shawl, and a white veil. They protected the sacred fire and the penates of Rome. White symbolized their purity, loyalty, and chastity.

File:Paintings from the Chauvet cave (museum replica).jpg|Prehistoric paintings in Chauvet Cave, France (30,000 to 32,000 BC)
File:Ägyptischer Maler um 1360 v. Chr. 001.jpg|Painting of the goddess Isis (1380–1385 BC). The priests of her cult wore white linen.
File:Maler der Grabkammer des Thot 001.jpg|Paintings of women in white from a tomb (1448–1422 BC).
File:Chief Vestal.jpg|Statue of the chief Vestal Virgin, wearing a white palla and a white veil.

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance

The early Christian church adopted the Roman symbolism of white as the color of purity, sacrifice and virtue. It became the color worn by priests during Mass, the color worn by monks of the Cistercian Order, and, under Pope Pius V, a former monk of the Dominican Order, it became the official color worn by the pope himself. Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict dressed in the white or gray of natural undyed wool, but later changed to black, the color of humility and penitence.

In Medieval art, the white lamb became the symbol of the sacrifice of Christ on behalf of mankind. John the Baptist described Christ as the lamb of God, who took the sins of the world upon himself. The white lamb was the center of one of the most famous paintings of the Medieval period, the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck. 

White was also the symbolic color of the transfiguration. The Gospel of Saint Mark describes Jesus' clothing in this event as "shining, exceeding white as snow." Artists such as Fra Angelico used their greatest skill to capture the whiteness of his garments. In his painting of the transfiguration at the Convent of Saint Mark in Florence, Fra Angelico emphasized the white garment by using a light gold background, placed in an almond-shaped halo. 

The white unicorn was a common subject of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, paintings and tapestries. It was a symbol of purity, chastity and grace, which could only be captured by a virgin. It was often portrayed in the lap of the Virgin Mary. 

During the Middle Ages, painters rarely ever mixed colors; but in the Renaissance, the influential humanist and scholar Leon Battista Alberti encouraged artists to add white to their colors to make them lighter, brighter, and to add hilaritas, or gaiety. Many painters followed his advice, and the palette of the Renaissance was considerably brighter. 

In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, white was commonly worn by widows as a color of mourning. The widows of the kings of France wore white until Anne of Brittany in the 16th century. A white tunic was also worn by many knights, along with a red cloak, which showed the knights were willing to give their blood for the king or Church.

File:Sodoma - Life of St Benedict, Scene 31 - Benedict Feeds the Monk - WGA21581.jpg|The monks of the order of Saint Benedict (circa 480-542)  first dressed in undyed white or gray wool robes, here shown in painting by Sodoma on the life of Saint Benedict (1504). They later changed to black robes, the color of humility and penitence.
File:Unicorn hunt - British Library Royal 12 F xiii f10v (detail).jpg|The white unicorn frequently appeared in Medieval art, often as a symbol of virginity and purity. This the unicorn hunt from the Rochester Bestiary, from about 1230, in the British Library.
File:Bartolomeo Passarotti Pope Pius V.jpg|Under Pope Pius V (1504–1572), a former monk of the Dominican Order, white became the official color worn by the Pope.
File:Ghent Altarpiece D - Adoration of the Lamb 2.jpg|The white lamb in the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck. (1432)
File:Transfiguration by fra Angelico (San Marco Cell 6).jpg|The Transfiguration by Fra Angelico (1440–1442)
File:Leonardo da Vinci - Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (Lady with an Ermine) - WGA12698.jpg|Lady with an ermine, by Leonardo da Vinci (1490). The ermine symbolized nobility and purity. It was believed that an ermine would rather die than allow its white fur to become dirty.
File:Mary Queen of Scots in mourning.jpg|Mary Stuart wore white in mourning for her husband, King Francis II of France, who died in 1560. 

18th and 19th centuries

White was the dominant color of architectural interiors in the Baroque period and especially the Rococo style that followed it in the 18th century. Church interiors were designed to show the power, glory and wealth of the church. They seemed to be alive, filled with curves, asymmetry, mirrors, gilding, statuary and reliefs, unified by white.

White was also a fashionable color for both men and women in the 18th century. Men in the aristocracy and upper classes wore powdered white wigs and white stockings, and women wore elaborate embroidered white and pastel gowns.

After the French Revolution, a more austere white (blanc cassé) became the most fashionable color in women's costumes which were modeled after the outfits of Ancient Greece and Republican Rome. Because of the rather revealing design of these dresses, the ladies wearing them were called les merveilleuses (the marvellous) by French men of that era.  The Empire style under Emperor Napoléon I was modeled after the more conservative outfits of Ancient Imperial Rome. The dresses were high in fashion but low in warmth considering the more severe weather conditions of northern France; in 1814 the former wife of Napoleon, Joséphine de Beauharnais, caught  pneumonia and died after taking a walk in the cold night air with Tsar Alexander I of Russia. 

White was the universal color of both men and women's underwear and of sheets in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was unthinkable to have sheets or underwear of any other color. The reason was simple;  the manner of washing linen in boiling water caused colors to fade. When linen was worn out, it was collected and turned into high-quality paper. 

The 19th-century American painter James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), working at the same time as the French impressionists, created a series of paintings with musical titles where he used color to create moods, the way composers used music. His painting "Symphony in White No. 1 - The White Girl", which used his mistress Joanna Hiffernan as a model, used delicate colors to portray innocence and fragility, and a moment of uncertainty.  

File:BasilikaOttobeurenHauptschiff02.JPG|A highly theatrical white Rococo interior from the 18th century, at the Basilica at Ottobeuren, in Bavaria.
File:Marie-Antoinette par Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun - 1783.jpg|White gown of Marie Antoinette, painted by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun in 1783. 
File:Gilbert Stuart, George Washington (Lansdowne portrait, 1796).jpg|President George Washington in a white powdered wig. The first five Presidents of the United States wore dark suits with powdered wigs for formal occasions.
File:Emprjose.jpg|Portrait of  Joséphine de Beauharnais in a classic Empire gown, modeled after the clothing of ancient Rome. (1801), by François Gérard. (The State Hermitage Museum).
File:Whistler James Symphony in White no 1 (The White Girl) 1862.jpg|Symphony in White No. 1 - The White Girl, by James McNeill Whistler (1862).

20th and 21st centuries

The White movement was the opposition that formed against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War, which followed the Russian Revolution in 1917. It was finally defeated by the Bolsheviks in 1921-22, and many of its members emigrated to Europe.

At the end of the 19th century, lead white was still the most popular pigment; but between 1916 and 1918, chemical companies in Norway and the United States began to produce titanium white, made from titanium oxide. It had first been identified in the 18th century by the German chemist Martin Klaproth, who also discovered uranium. It had twice the covering power of lead white, and was the brightest white pigment known. By 1945, 80 percent of the white pigments sold were titanium white. 

The absoluteness of white appealed to modernist painters. It was used in its simplest form by the Russian suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich in his 1917 painting 'the white square,' the companion to his earlier 'black square.' It was also used by the Dutch modernist painter Piet Mondrian. His most famous paintings consisted of a pure white canvas with grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and rectangles of primary colors.

Black and white also appealed to modernist architects, such as Le Corbusier (1887–1965). He said a house was "a machine for living in" and called for a "calm and powerful architecture" built of reinforced concrete and steel, without any ornament or frills.   Almost all the buildings of contemporary architect Richard Meier, such as his museum in Rome to house the ancient Roman Ara Pacis, or Altar of Peace, are stark white, in the tradition of Le Corbusier.

File:За единую Россію.jpg|Poster for the White Army during the Russian Civil War (1917–22). The poster says: "for a United Russia." 
File:Kazimir_Malevich_-_%27Suprematist_Composition-_White_on_White%27,_oil_on_canvas,_1918,_Museum_of_Modern_Art.jpg|White on White (1917) by Kazimir Malevich, Museum of Modern Art, New York
File:VillaSavoye.jpg|The Villa Savoye (1928–31) by Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier called for a "calm and powerful" architecture built of steel and reinforced concrete.

Science

Optics and white light

White is the color the human visual system senses when the incoming light to the eye stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the eye in nearly equal amounts.  Materials that do not emit light themselves appear white if their surfaces reflect back most of the light that strikes them in a diffuse way.

In 1666, Isaac Newton demonstrated that white light could be broken up into its composite colors by passing it through a prism, then using a second prism to reassemble them.  Before Newton, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental color of light.

White light can be generated by the sun, by stars, or by earthbound sources such as fluorescent lamps, white LEDs and incandescent bulbs. On the screen of a color television or computer, white is produced by mixing the primary colors of light: red, green and blue (RGB) at full intensity, a process called additive mixing (see image below). White light can be fabricated using light with only two wavelengths, for instance by mixing light from a red and cyan laser or yellow and blue lasers. This light will however have very few practical applications since color rendering of objects will be greatly distorted.

The fact that light sources with vastly different spectral power distributions can result in a similar sensory experience is due to the way the light is processed by the visual system. One color that arise from two different spectral power distributions is called a metamerism.

The International Commission on Illumination defines white (adapted) as "a color stimulus that an observer who is adapted to the viewing environment would judge to be perfectly achromatic and to have a luminance factor of unity.  The color stimulus that is considered to be the adapted white may be different at different locations within a scene. 

The adaptation mentioned in the CIE definition above is the chromatic adaptation by which the same colored object in a scene experienced under very different illuminations will be perceived as having nearly the same color. The same principle is used in photography and cinematography where the choice of white point determines a transformation of all other color stimuli. Changes in or manipulation of the white point can be used to explain some optical illusions such as The dress.

File:Synthese+.svg|In the RGB color model, used to create colors on TV and computer screens, white is made by mixing red, blue and green light at full intensity.
File:Dispersion prism.jpg|White light refracted in a prism revealing the color components.

Many of the light sources that emit white light emit light at almost all visible wavelengths (sun light, incandescent lamps of various Color temperatures). This has led to the notion that white light can be defined as a mixture of "all colors" or "all visible wavelengths". This misconception is widespread   and might originally stem from the fact that Newton discovered that sunlight is composed of light with wavelengths across the visible spectrum. Concluding that since "all colors" produce white light then white must be made up of "all colors" is a common logical error called affirming the consequent, which might be the cause of the misunderstanding.

Why snow, clouds and beaches are white

Snow is a mixture of air and tiny ice crystals. When white sunlight enters snow, very little of the spectrum is absorbed; almost all of the light is reflected or scattered by the air and water molecules, so the snow appears to be the color of sunlight, white. Sometimes the light bounces around inside the ice crystals before being scattered, making the snow seem to sparkle.

In the case of glaciers, the ice is more tightly pressed together and contains little air. As sunlight enters the ice, more light of the red spectrum is absorbed, so the light scattered will be bluish. 

Clouds are white for the same reason as ice. They are composed of water droplets or ice crystals mixed with air, very little light that strikes them is absorbed, and most of the light is scattered, appearing to the eye as white. Shadows of other clouds above can make clouds look gray, and some clouds have their own shadow on the bottom of the cloud. 

Many mountains with winter or year-round snow cover are named accordingly: Mauna Kea means white mountain in Hawaiian, Mont Blanc means white mountain in French. Changbai Mountains literally meaning perpetually white mountains, marks the border between China and Korea.

Beaches with sand containing high amounts of quartz or eroded limestone also appear white, since quartz and limestone reflect or scatter sunlight, rather than absorbing it. Tropical white sand beaches may also have a high quantity of white calcium carbonate from tiny bits of seashells ground to fine sand by the action of the waves.

File:Snow-covered fir trees.jpg|Snow is composed of ice and air; it scatters or reflects sunlight without absorbing other colors of the spectrum.

File:MontBlanc2c.jpg|Mont Blanc in the Alps. It takes its name from the white snow on its summit.
File:Cumulus clouds in fair weather.jpeg|Cumulus clouds look white because the water droplets reflect and scatter the sunlight without absorbing other colors.
File:Pensacola Beach 1957 White Sand.jpg|Pensacola Beach, Florida. White sand beaches look white because the quartz or eroded limestone in the sand reflects or scatters sunlight without absorbing other colors. 

Chemistry- white pigments and dyes

Chalk is a kind of limestone, made of the mineral calcite, or calcium carbonate. It was originally deposited under the sea as the scales or plates of tiny micro-organisms called Coccolithophore. It was the first white pigment used by prehistoric artists in cave paintings. The chalk used on blackboards today is usually made of gypsum or calcium sulphate, a powder pressed into sticks.

Bianco di San Giovanni is a pigment used in the Renaissance, which was described by the painter Cennino Cennini in the 15th century. It is similar to chalk, made of calcium carbonate with calcium hydroxide. It was made of dried lime which was made into a powder, then soaked in water for eight days, with the water changed each day. It was then made into cakes and dried in the sun. 

Lead white was being produced during the 4th century BC; the process is described is Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius and the ancient Greek author Theophrastus. Pieces of lead were put into clay pots which had a separate compartment filled with vinegar. The pots in turn were piled on shelves close to cow dung. The combined fumes of the vinegar and the cow dung caused the lead to corrode into lead carbonate. It was a slow process which could take a month or more. It made an excellent white and was used by artists for centuries, but it was also toxic. It was replaced in the 19th century by zinc white and titanium white. 

Titanium white is the most popular white for artists today; it is the brightest available white pigment, and has twice the coverage of lead white. It first became commercially available in 1921. It is made out of titanium dioxide, from the minerals brookite, anatase, rutile, or ilmenite, currently the major source. Because of its brilliant whiteness, it is used as a colorant for most toothpaste and sunscreen. 

Zinc white is made from zinc oxide. It is similar to but not as opaque as titanium white. It is added to some breakfast cereals, since zinc is an important nutrient.

Some materials can be made to look "whiter than white", this is achieved using optical brightener agents (OBA). These are chemical compounds that absorb light in the ultraviolet and violet region (usually 340-370 nm) of the electromagnetic spectrum, and re-emit light in the blue region (typically 420-470 nm). OBAs are often used in paper and clothing to create an impression of very bright white. This is due to the fact that the materials actually send out more visible light than they receive.

Chinese white is a variety of zinc white made for artists.

File:Titanium(IV) oxide.jpg|Titanium white, made with titanium dioxide, is the brightest white paint available. It also colors most toothpaste and sunscreen. 
File:Zinc oxide.jpg|Zinc white, made from zinc oxide.

Bleach and bleaching

Bleaching is a process for whitening fabrics which has been practiced for thousands of years. Sometimes it was simply a matter of leaving the fabric in the sun, to be faded by the bright light. In the 18th century several scientists developed varieties of chlorine bleach, including  sodium hypochlorite and calcium hypochlorite (bleaching powder). Bleaching agents that do not contain chlorine most often are based on peroxides, such as hydrogen peroxide, sodium percarbonate and sodium perborate. While most bleaches are oxidizing agents, a fewer number are reducing agents such as sodium dithionite.

Bleaches attack the chromophores, the part of a molecule which absorbs light and causes fabrics to have different colors. An oxidizing bleach works by breaking the chemical bonds that make up the chromophore. This changes the molecule into a different substance that either does not contain a chromophore, or contains a chromophore that does not absorb visible light. A reducing bleach works by converting double bonds in the chromophore into single bonds. This eliminates the ability of the chromophore to absorb visible light. 

Sunlight acts as a bleach through a similar process. High energy photons of light, often in the violet or ultraviolet range, can disrupt the bonds in the chromophore, rendering the resulting substance colorless. 

Some detergents go one step further; they contain fluorescent chemicals which glow, making the fabric look literally whiter than white. 

Astronomy

A white dwarf is a stellar remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. They are very dense; a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy.

A white dwarf is very hot when it is formed, but since it has no source of energy, it will gradually radiate away its energy and cool down. This means that its radiation, which initially has a high color temperature, will lessen and redden with time. Over a very long time, a white dwarf will cool to temperatures at which it will no longer emit significant heat or light, and it will become a cold black dwarf.  However, since no white dwarf can be older than the age of the Universe (approximately 13.8 billion years),  even the oldest white dwarfs still radiate at temperatures of a few thousand kelvins, and no black dwarfs are thought to exist yet.

File:Sirius A and B Hubble photo.jpg|Image of Sirius A and Sirius B taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Sirius B, a white dwarf, is the faint pinprick of light to the lower left of the much brighter Sirius A.

Biology

Most white animals have their color as a form of camouflage in winter.

File:Dove 001.JPG|The dove is an international symbol of peace.
File:Ivory Gull Portrait.jpg|The ivory gull.
File:Cygnus olor 2 (Marek Szczepanek).jpg|Mute swans. Swans of the Northern Hemisphere are white, while those of the Southern Hemisphere are black and white. 
File:Polarfuchs 1 2004-11-17.jpg|The Arctic fox
File:Mustela erminea winter cropped.jpg|The ermine, or stoat. Once considered the most noble of animals because it would rather die than dirty its fur, it is now considered an invasive species.
File:Uncia uncia.jpg|A snow leopard.
File:Delphinapterus leucas 2.jpg|A beluga whale. Its color helps it hide from its chief enemies, the polar bear and killer whales.
File:White pearl necklace.jpg|White pearls are hard objects produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk, like an oyster or clam. They are made of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form. 
File:Betula pendula 001.jpg|The silver birch's bark is silvery-white.
File:Proteus anguinus Postojnska Jama Slovenija.jpg|Olms in Postojna Cave, Slovenia. Their skin color is pale or whitish.
File:Large white spread wings.jpg|A cabbage butterfly (Pieris brassicae).

Associations and symbolism

Innocence and sacrifice

In Western culture, white is the color most often associated with innocence.  In Biblical times, lambs and other white animals were sacrificed to expiate sins.  In Christianity Christ is considered the "lamb of God," who died for the sins of mankind. The white lily is considered the flower of purity and innocence, and is often associated with the Virgin Mary.

The beginning and the new

White is the color in Western culture most often associated with beginnings and the new. In Christianity, children are baptized wearing white, and, wear white for their first communion. Christ after his Resurrection is traditionally portrayed dressed in white. Eggs, another symbol of the new, are used to celebrate Easter.

The Queen of the United Kingdom traditionally wears white when she opens the session of Parliament. In high society, debutantes traditionally wear white for their first ball.

Weddings

White has long been the traditional color worn by brides at royal weddings, but the white wedding gown for ordinary people appeared in the 19th century. Before that time, most brides wore their best Sunday clothing, of whatever color.  The white lace wedding gown of Queen Victoria in 1840 had a large impact on the color and fashion of wedding dresses in both Europe and America down to the present day. 

File:Wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.jpg|The wedding dress of Queen Victoria (1840) set the fashion for wedding dresses of the Victorian era and for the 20th century.
File:Wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna by Laurits Tuxen (1895, Hermitage).jpg|The wedding of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse), the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, in 1894.
File:Wedding kimono.jpg|Brides in China and other parts of Asia traditionally wear red, the color of happiness and good fortune, but in the Shinto religion of Japan brides traditionally wear a white wedding kimono.
File:MyBarong created this Custom tailored Barong Tagalog for my wedding.jpg|The Barong Tagalog is a traditional Folk costume of the Philippines; this attire is worn on formal gatherings and weddings.

Cleanliness

White is the color most associated with cleanliness. Objects which are expected to be clean, such as refrigerators and dishes, toilets and sinks,  bed linen and towels, are traditionally white. White was the traditional color of the coats of doctors, nurses,  scientists and laboratory technicians, though nowadays a pale blue or green is often used. White is also the color most often worn by chefs, bakers, and butchers, and the color of the aprons of waiters in French restaurants. 

Ghosts, phantoms and two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

White is the color associated with ghosts and phantoms. In the past the dead were traditionally buried in a white shroud.  Ghosts are said to be the spirits of the dead who, for various reasons, are unable to rest or enter heaven, and so walk the earth in their white shrouds. White is also connected with the paleness of death. A common expression in English is "pale as a ghost." 

The woman in white,  Weiße Frau, or dame blanche is a familiar figure in English, German and French ghost stories. She is a spectral apparition of a female clad in white, in most cases the ghost of an ancestor, sometimes giving warning about death and disaster. The most notable Weiße Frau is the legendary ghost of the German Hohenzollern dynasty.

Seeing a white horse in a dream is said to be presentiment of death. 
In the Book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament of the Bible, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are supposed to announce the Apocalypse before the Last Judgement. The man on a white horse with a bow and arrow. according to different interpretations, represents either War and Conquest, the Antichrist, or Christ himself, cleansing the world of sin. Death rides a horse whose color is described in ancient Greek as khlōros (χλωρός) in the original Koine Greek,  which can mean either green/greenish-yellow or pale/pallid. 
File:Apparition DB.JPG|The woman in white or dame blanche is a familiar figure in English, French and German ghost stories.
File:Apocalypse vasnetsov.jpg|The biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Conquest, with a bow, rides a white horse. Death rides a pale or light green horse. (Painting by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1887).

Black and white

Black and white often represent the contrast between light and darkness, day and night, good and evil.

In taoism, the two opposite natures of the universe, yin and yang, are often symbolized in black and white, Ancient games of strategy, such as go and chess, use black and white to represent the two sides.

In the French monarchy, white symbolized the King and his power par la grâce de Dieu ("by the grace of God") and in contrast black was the color of the queen who according to the Salic Law which excluded women from the throne (and thus from power) could never become the ruling monarch.

Black and white also often represent formality and seriousness, as in the costumes of judges and priests, business suits, of formal evening dress. Monks of the Dominican Order wear a black cloak over a white habit. Until 1972 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation were required to wear white shirts with their suits, to project the correct image of the FBI.

File:Yin and Yang.svg|In Taoism, white represents the yang, one of the two opposite natures of the universe.

Names taken from white

White is the source of more names for women in western countries than any other color.  Names taken from white include Alba, Albine (Latin). Blanche and Blanchette (French); Bianca (Italian); Jennifer (Celt); Genevieve, Candice (from Latin Candida); Fenela, Fiona and Finola (Irish); Gwendoline, Gwenael, Nol(g)wen (white woman) (Celt), Nives (Italian) and Zuria (Basque).

In addition many names come from white flowers: Camille, Daisy, Lily, Lili, Magnolie, Jasmine, Yasemine, Leila, Marguerite,  Rosalba, and others.

Other names come from the white pearl; Pearl, Margarita (Latin), Margaret, Margarethe, Marga, Grete, Rita, Gitta, Marjorie, Margot.

White in other cultures

In China, Korea, and some other Asian countries, white, or more precisely, the whitish color of undyed linen, is the color of mourning and funerals. 

In traditional China, undyed linen clothing is worn at funerals. As time passes, the bereaved can gradually wear clothing dyed with colors, then with darker colors. Small sacks of quicklime, one for each year of the life of the deceased are placed around the body to protect it against impurity in the next world, and white paper flowers are placed around the body. 

In China and other Asian counties, white is the color of reincarnation,  showing that death is not a permanent separation from the world. 

In China, white is associated with the masculine (the yang of the yin and yang); with the unicorn and tiger; with the fur of an animal; with the direction of west; with the element metal;  and with the autumn season. 

In Japan, undyed linen white robes are worn by pilgrims for rituals of purification, and bathing in sacred rivers. In the mountains, pilgrims wear costumes of undyed jute to symbolize purity. A white kimono is often placed in the casket with the deceased for the journey to the other world, as white represents death sometimes.   Condolence gifts, or kooden, are tied with black and white ribbons and wrapped in white paper, protecting the contents from the impurities of the other world. 

In India, the color white was traditionally reserved for the Brahmin caste. It is the color of purity, divinity, detachment and serenity. In Hindi, the name Sweta means white.

In Tibetan Buddhism, white robes were reserved for the lama of a monastery.

In the Bedouin and some other pastoral cultures, there is a strong connection between milk and white, which is considered the color of gratitude, esteem, joy, good fortune and fertility. 

File:Iwamotoji PilgrimGirl.JPG|A pilgrim in Japan.
File:JapaneseFuneralEnvelope.jpg|In Japan, the traditional envelope for condolence gifts is wrapped in a black and white cord,  and a white kimono is often placed in the coffin with the deceased.
File:Weisse tara mongolian art.jpg|The Buddhist deity Tara is often depicted with white skin.
File:Brahmin boy ritual.jpg|A Brahmin boy in India wears white for a religious ritual.
File:Bedouin.jpg|A Bedouin in the United Arab Emirates. White is the traditional costume for men, and the color of esteem and good fortune.

Temples, churches and government buildings

Since ancient times, temples, churches, and many government buildings in many countries have traditionally been white, the color associated with religious and civic virtue. The Parthenon and other ancient temples of Greece, and the buildings of the Roman forum  were mostly made of or clad in white marble, though it is now known that some of these ancient buildings were actually brightly painted.  The Roman tradition of using white stone for government buildings and churches was revived in the Renaissance and especially in the neoclassic style of the 18th and 19th centuries. White stone became the material of choice for government buildings in Washington D.C. and other American cities. European cathedrals were also usually built of white or light-colored stone, though many darkened over the centuries from smoke and soot.

The Renaissance architect and scholar Leon Battista Alberti wrote in 1452 that churches should be plastered white on the inside, since white was the only appropriate color for reflection and meditation.   After the Reformation, Calvinist churches in the Netherlands were whitewashed and sober inside, a tradition that was also followed in the Protestant churches of New England, such as Old North Church in Boston.

File:Parthenon.jpg|Although the Parthenon in Athens (5th century BC) is white today, it was originally painted with many colors 
File:858MilanoDuomo.JPG|The Cathedral of Milan (1386–1965)
File:Delft interieur Waalse Kerk.jpg|Dutch Reformed Church interior in Delft, the Netherlands (16th century)
File:2006Boston007.jpg|Interior of Old North Church, Boston (1723)
File:WhiteHouseSouthFacade.JPG|The White House (1801), Washington D.C.
File:United States Capitol dome daylight.jpg|The United States Capitol dome (1855–66)
File:Sacre-coeur-paris.jpg| Basilica of Sacré-Cœur, Paris (1919)
File:Palacio do Planalto.jpeg|The Palácio do Planalto in Brasília, official workplace of the President of Brazil (1960)
File:St Mary's Cathedral - San Francisco.jpg|Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco (1971)
File:Den Haag stadhuis april 2004.JPG|The City Hall in The Hague, Netherlands, by architect Richard Meier (2004).

Government and politics 

White is often associated with monarchism. The association originally came from the white flag of the Bourbon dynasty of France. White became the banner of the royalist rebellions against the French Revolution (see Revolt in the Vendée).

During the Civil War which followed the Russian Revolution of 1917, the White Army, a coalition of monarchists, nationalists and liberals, fought unsuccessfully against the Red Army of the Bolsheviks. A similar battle between reds and whites took place during the Civil War in Finland in the same period.

The Ku Klux Klan is a racist and anti-immigrant organization which flourished in the Southern United States after the American Civil War. They wore white robes and hoods, burned crosses and violently attacked and murdered black Americans.

In Iran, the White Revolution was a series of social and political reforms launched in 1963 by the last Shah of Iran before his downfall.

White is also associated with peace and passive resistance. The white ribbon is worn by movements denouncing violence against women and the White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany.

File:Volunteer Army recruitment poster.jpg|A recruiting poster for the White Volunteer Army during the Russian Civil War (1919). The text says, "Son, go save the motherland!" 
File:Klan-in-gainesville.jpg|A cross burning by the racist Ku Klux Klan in Florida in the early 20th century.

Religion 

In the Roman Catholic Church, white is associated with Jesus Christ, innocence and sacrifice. Since the Middle Ages, priests wear a white cassock in many of the most important ceremonies and religious services connected with events in the life of Christ. White is worn by priests at Christmas, during Easter, and during celebrations connected with the other events of the life of Christ, such as Corpus Christi Sunday, and Trinity Sunday. It is also worn at the services dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and to those Saints who were not martyred, as well as other special occasions, such as the ordination of priests and the installation of new bishops. Within the hierarchy of the church, the lighter the color, the higher the rank. Ordinary priests wear black; bishops wear violet, cardinals wear red, and outside a church, only the Pope will wear white.   Popes occasionally wore white in the Middle Ages, but usually wore red. Popes have worn white regularly since 1566, when Pope Pius V, a member of the Dominican Order, began the practice.  White is the color of the Dominican Order.

In Islam, white clothing is worn during required pilgrimage to Mecca, or Ihram pilgrimage (Hajj).Hajj. Called Ihram clothing, men's garments often consist of two white un-hemmed sheets (usually towelling material). The top (the riḍā) is draped over the torso and the bottom (the izār) is secured by a belt; plus a pair of sandals. Women's clothing varies considerably and reflects regional as well as religious influences. Ihram is typically worn during Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month in the Islamic calendar.

In Judaism, during the rituals of Yom Kippur, the ceremony of atonement, the rabbi dresses in white, as do the members of the congregation, to restore the bonds between God and his followers.

In the traditional Japanese religion of Shinto, an area of white gravel or stones marks a sacred place, called a niwa. These places were dedicated to the kami, spirits which had descended from the heavens or had come across the sea. Later, temples of Zen Buddhism in Japan often featured a Zen garden, where white sand or gravel was carefully raked to resemble rivers or streams,  designed as objects of meditation. 

In the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church or also known as Mormon), White clothing is worn inside once they have been officially dedicated, due to white symbolizing purity. 

Many religions symbolize heaven by using a sky with white clouds. This phenomenon is not limited to western culture; in Yoruba religion, the orisha Obatala in the Ifá tradition is represented by white. Obatala is associated with calmness, morality, old age, and purity.

In Theosophy and similar religions, the deities called the Great White Brotherhood are said to have white auras. 

In some Asian and Slavic cultures, white is considered to be a color that represents death.  White also represented death in ancient Egypt, representing the lifeless desert that covered much of the country; black was held to be the color of life, representing the mud-covered fertile lands created by the flooding of the Nile and giving the country its name (Kemet, or "black land").

File:Al-Haram mosque - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg|Thousands of pilgrims in white gather in Mecca for the beginning of their pilgrimage, or Haj.
File:Pope Francis in March 2013.jpg|Pope Francis (2013).  The Pope wears white as a symbol of innocence and sacrifice.
File:Toufuku-ji kaizandou3.JPG|The zen garden of Tōfuku-ji temple in Japan. The Shinto religion uses white sand or gravel to symbolize a sacred place, while Zen Buddhism uses it to stimulate calm and meditation.

Ethnography 

People of the Caucasian race, most commonly those of European descent, are often referred to simply as white. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. It includes people who reported “White” or wrote in entries such as Irish, German, Italian, Lebanese, Near Easterner, Arab, or Polish." Whites constitute the majority of the U.S. population, with a total of 223,553,265 or 72.4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census.

The white flag

A white flag has long been used to represent either surrender or a request for a truce.  It is believed to have originated in the 15th century, during the Hundred Years' War between France and England, when multicolored flags, as well as firearms,  came into common use by European armies.  The white flag was officially recognized as a request to cease hostilities by the Geneva Convention of 1949. 

Vexillology and heraldry 

In English heraldry, white or silver signified brightness, purity, virtue, and innocence. 

Selected national flags featuring white

White is a common color in national flags, though its symbolism varies widely.  The white in the flag of the United States and flag of the United Kingdom comes from traditional red St George's Cross on a white background of the historic flag of England. The white in the flag of France represents either the monarchy or "white, the ancient French color" according to the Marquis de Lafayette.

Many flags in the Arab world use the colors of the flag of the Arab Revolt of 1916; red, white, green and black. These include the flags of Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Kuwait and Iraq.

Philippines also use white as their symbol for unity in their flag.

File:Pavillon royal de France.svg|Flag of the Bourbons, royal family of France until the French Revolution and during the restoration of the monarchy afterwards.
File:Flag of the Vatican City.svg|The Flag of Vatican City (1929).  The white and gold colors symbolize the colors of the keys to heaven given by Jesus Christ to Saint Peter: the gold of spiritual power, the white of worldly power. The keys have been the Papal symbol since the 13th century.

File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg|The flag of the Netherlands (1572) was the first red, white and blue national flag.  Peter the Great adopted the colors for the flag of Russia. 
File:Flag of India.svg|The flag of India (1947).  White represents "light, the path of truth". 
File:Flag of Ireland.svg|The flag of Ireland. According to the Irish government press office, "The green represents the older Gaelic tradition while the orange represents the supporters of William of Orange. The white in the centre signifies a lasting truce between the 'Orange' and the 'Green'. " 
File:Flag of Egypt.svg|The flag of Egypt (1984). 
File:Flag of the Philippines.svg| The Flag of the Philippines use royal blue, scarlet , yellow, and white.  
The colors come from the flag of the Arab Revolt in 1916.
File:Flag of Taliban.svg|The flag of the Taliban in Afghanistan from 1997-2001. It reverses the colors of the Black Standard, the flag of Muhammad. The text says 'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." 

Idioms and expressions

* To whitewash something is to conceal an unpleasant reality.
* A white lie is an innocent lie told out of politeness.
* White noise is the noise of all the frequencies of sound combined.  It is used to cover up unwanted noise.
* A white knight in finance is a friendly investor who steps in to rescue a company from a hostile takeover.
* White-collar workers are those who work in offices, as opposed to blue-collar workers, who work with their hands in factories or workshops.
* A white paper is an authoritative report on a major issue by a team of experts; a government report outlining policy; or a short treatise whose purpose is to educate industry customers. Associating a paper with white may signify clean facts and unbiased information.
* The white feather is a symbol of cowardice, particularly in Britain.  It supposedly comes from cockfighting and the belief that a cockerel sporting a white feather in its tail is likely to be a poor fighter.  At the beginning of the First World War, women in England were encouraged to give white feathers to men who had not enlisted in the British Armed Forces. 
* In the US, a white shoe firm is an older, conservative firm, usually in a field such as banking or law. The phrase derives from the "white bucks," laced suede or buckskin shoes with red soles, long popular in the Ivy League colleges.
* In Russia, the nobility are sometimes described as white bone (белая кость, bélaya kost'), commoners as black bone. Yellow is the color between green and orange in the spectrum of visible light, the color of ripe lemons, sunflowers and gold.  It is a primary color in subtractive color, used in color printing.   According to surveys in Europe, Canada and the United States, yellow is the color people most often associate with amusement, gentleness, and spontaneity, but also with duplicity, envy, jealousy, avarice, and, in the U.S., with cowardice.  It plays an important role in Asian culture, particularly in China, where it is seen as the color of happiness, glory, wisdom, harmony and culture. 

Etymology

The word yellow comes from the Old English geolu, geolwe (oblique case), meaning "yellow, yellowish", derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz "yellow". It has the same Indo-European base, gʰel-, as the words gold and yell; gʰel- means both bright and gleaming, and to cry out. Yellow is a color which cries out for attention. 

The English term is related to other Germanic words for yellow, namely Scots yella, East Frisian jeel, West Frisian giel, Dutch geel, German gelb, and Swedish gul.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the oldest known use of this word in English is from The Epinal Glossary in 700. 

History, art, and fashion

Prehistory and antiquity

Yellow, in the form of yellow ochre pigment made from clay, was one of the first colors used in prehistoric cave art. The cave of Lascaux has an image of a horse colored with yellow estimated to be 17,300 years old.

In Ancient Egypt, yellow+blue was associated with gold, which was considered to be imperishable, eternal and indestructible. The skin and bones of the gods were believed to be made of gold. The Egyptians used yellow extensively in tomb paintings; they usually used either yellow ochre or the brilliant orpiment, though it was made of arsenic and was highly toxic. A small paintbox with orpiment pigment was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Men were always shown with brown faces, women with yellow ochre or gold faces. 

The ancient Romans used yellow in their paintings to represent gold and also in skin tones. It is found frequently in the murals of Pompeii.

File:Lascaux2.jpg|Image of a horse colored with yellow ochre. from Lascaux cave.
File:Tomb of Nakht.jpg|Paintings in the Tomb of Nakht in ancient Egypt (15th century BC).
File:Harfenspielerin Römisches Fresko.jpg|Yellow ochre was often used in wall paintings in Ancient Roman villas and towns.
File:Meister von San Vitale in Ravenna 003.jpg|Byzantine art made lavish use of the colors gold and white, here in this mosaic of the Emperor Justinian from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy (Before 547 AD).
File:Flag of Palaeologus Dynasty.svg|The flag of the Paleologus dynasty of Byzantine emperors was red and gold.

The Middle Ages and Renaissance

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, yellow became firmly established as the color of Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ, even though the Bible never describes his clothing. From this connection, yellow also took on associations with envy, jealousy and duplicity.

The tradition began in the Renaissance of marking non-Christian outsiders, such as Jews, with the color yellow. In 16th century Spain, those accused of heresy and who refused to renounce their views were compelled to come before the Spanish Inquisition dressed in a yellow cape. 

File:Thomas Becket Murder.JPG|Saffron was sometimes used as a pigment in Medieval manuscripts, such as this page showing the murder of Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. (Circa 1200).
File:Giotto - Scrovegni - -31- - Kiss of Judas.jpg|The Kiss of Judas (1304–06) by Giotto di Bondone, followed the Medieval tradition of clothing Judas Iscariot in a yellow toga.
File:Young Man in a Yellow Robe c1630-1631 Jan Lievens.jpg|Young Man in a Yellow Robe Jan Lievens, c.1630-1631 
File:Johannes Vermeer - Het melkmeisje - Google Art Project.jpg|The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer (c. 1658)

18th and 19th centuries

The 18th and 19th century saw the discovery and manufacture of synthetic pigments and dyes, which quickly replaced the traditional yellows made from arsenic, cow urine, and other substances.

Circa 1776, Jean-Honoré Fragonard painted A Young Girl Reading. She is dressed in a bright saffron yellow dress. This painting is "considered by many critics to be among Fragonard's most appealing and masterly". 

The 19th-century British painter J.M.W. Turner was one of the first in that century to use yellow to create moods and emotions, the way romantic composers were using music. His painting Rain, Steam, and Speed - the Great Central Railway was dominated by glowing yellow clouds.

Georges Seurat use the new synthetic colors in his experimental paintings composed of tiny points of primary colors, particularly in his famous Sunday Afternoon on the Isle de la Grand jatte (1884–86). He did not know that the new synthetic yellow pigment, zinc yellow or zinc chromate, which he used in the light green lawns, was highly unstable and would quickly turn brown. 

The painter Vincent van Gogh was a particular admirer of the color yellow, the color of sunshine. Writing to his sister from the south of France in 1888, he wrote, "Now we are having beautiful warm, windless weather that is very beneficial to me. The sun, a light that for lack of a better word I can only call yellow, bright sulfur yellow, pale lemon gold. How beautiful yellow is!" In Arles, Van Gogh painted sunflowers inside a small house he rented at 2 Place Lamartine, a house painted what Van Gogh called "buttery yellow." Van Gogh was one of the first artists to use commercially manufactured paints, rather than paints he made himself. He used the traditional yellow ochre, but also chrome yellow, first made in 1809, and cadmium yellow, first made in 1820. 

At the end of the 19th century, in 1895, a new popular art form began to appear in New York newspapers; the color comic strip. It took advantage of a new color printing process, which used color separation and three different colors of ink; magenta, cyan, and yellow, plus black, to create all the colors on the page. One of the first characters in the new comic strips was a humorous boy of the New York streets named Mickey Dugen, more commonly known as the Yellow Kid, from the yellow nightshirt he wore. He gave his name (and color) to the whole genre of popular, sensational journalism, which became known as "yellow journalism".

File:Fragonard, The Reader.jpg |A Young Girl Reading, or The Reader. Jean-Honoré Fragonard, ca. 1776, 32" x 25 1/2" National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
File:Rain Steam and Speed the Great Western Railway.jpg|Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway. (1844). British painter J.M.W. Turner used yellow clouds to create a mood, the way romantic composers of the time used music.
File:A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884.png|Georges Seurat used a new pigment, zinc yellow, in the green lawns of A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–86). He did not know that the paint would quickly deteriorate and turn brown.
File:Vincent Van Gogh 0010.jpg|Sunflowers (1888) by Vincent van Gogh is a fountain of yellows.
File:YellowKid.jpeg|The Yellow Kid (1895) was one of the first comic strip characters. He gave his name to type of sensational reporting called Yellow Journalism.

20th and 21st centuries

In the 20th century, yellow was revived as a symbol of exclusion, as it had been in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Jews in Nazi Germany and German-occupied countries were required to sew yellow triangles with the star of David onto their clothing.

In the 20th century, modernist painters reduced painting to its simplest colors and geometric shapes. The Dutch modernist painter Piet Mondrian made a series of paintings which consisted of a pure white canvas with grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and rectangles of yellow, red, and blue.

Yellow was particularly valued in the 20th century because of its high visibility. It often replaced red as the color of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, and was popular in neon signs, especially in Las Vegas and in China, where yellow was the most esteemed color.

The 21st century saw the use of unusual materials and technologies to create new ways of experiencing the color yellow. One example was The weather project, by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, which was installed in the open space of the Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern in 2003.

Eliasson used humidifiers to create a fine mist in the air via a mixture of sugar and water, as well as a semi-circular disc made up of hundreds of monochromatic lamps which radiated yellow light. The ceiling of the hall was covered with a huge mirror, in which visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of light. 

File:Yellow Room, Frieseke.jpg|Yellow Room, Frederick Carl Frieseke, 1910 
File:Yellowstar.jpg|Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe were required to wear yellow badges like this.
File:Horse&rider.jpg|Yellow was valued for its high visibility. Las Vegas became a showcase of neon art and advertising.
File:Palácio do Planalto Campanha Internacional Maio Amarelo.jpg|The Palácio do Planalto, official workplace of the President of Brazil, illuminated in yellow light. 

Science and nature

Light, optics and colorimetry

Yellow is the color the human eye sees when it looks at light within the wavelengths of 570 and 590 nanometers, the wavelength of light between green and orange.

In the language of optics, yellow is the evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M (long and medium wavelength) cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S (short-wavelength) cone cells.  Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green. Yellow's traditional RYB complementary color is purple, violet, or indigo, while its colorimetrically defined complementary color in both RGB and CMYK color spaces is blue.

In color printing and on a computer screen

In color printing, yellow is one of the three colors of ink, along with magenta and cyan, which can be overlaid in the right combination, along with black, to print any full color image. (See the CMYK color model).

The yellow on a color television or computer screen is created in a completely different way; by combining green and red light at the right level of intensity. (See RGB color model).

The most intense yellow in the eight-bit RGB color model is RGB yellow or X11 yellow ; yellow is a "secondary" color in an additive RGB space.

The measured light spectrum from yellow pixels on a typical computer display is complex, and very unlike the reflectance spectrum of a yellow object such as a banana. 

Process yellow (also known as "pigment yellow", "printer's yellow", and "canary yellow") is one of the three colors typically used as subtractive primary colors, along with magenta and cyan. The CMYK system for color printing is based on using four inks, one of which is a yellow color. This is in itself a standard color, and a fairly narrow range of yellow inks or pigments are used. Process yellow is based on a colorant that reflects the preponderance of red and green light, and absorbs most blue light, as in the reflectance spectra shown in the figure on the lower right.

Because of the characteristics of paint pigments and use of different color wheels, painters traditionally regard the complement of yellow as the color indigo or blue-violet.

Process yellow is not an RGB color, and there is no fixed conversion from CMYK primaries to RGB. Different formulations are used for printer's ink, so there can be variations in the printed color that is pure yellow ink.

The first recorded use of canary yellow as a color name in English was in 1789. 

CMYK color swatches.svg| Color printing typically uses ink of four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). When CMY "primaries" are combined at full strength, the resulting "secondary" mixtures are red, green, and blue
SubtractiveColor.svg |Mixing all three theoretically results in black, but imperfect ink formulations do not give true black, which is why an additional K component is needed.
File:NIEdot367.jpg|An example of color printing from 1902. Combining images in yellow, magenta and cyan creates a full-color picture.  This is called the CMYK color model.	
File:RGB illumination.jpg|On a computer display, yellow is created by combining green and red light at the right intensity on a black screen. This is called the RGB color model.

Complementary colors

Traditionally, the complementary color of yellow is violet; the two colors are opposite each other on the color wheel long used by painters.   Vincent Van Gogh, an avid student of color theory,  used combinations of yellow and violet in several of his paintings for the maximum contrast and harmony. 

Hunt defines that "two colors are complementary when it is possible to reproduce the tristimulus values of a specified achromatic stimulus by an additive mixture of these two stimuli." That is, when two colored lights can be mixed to match a specified white (achromatic, non-colored) light, the colors of those two lights are complementary. This definition, however, does not constrain what version of white will be specified. In the nineteenth century, the scientists Grassmann and Helmholtz did experiments in which they concluded that finding a good complement for spectral yellow was difficult, but that the result was indigo, that is, a wavelength that today's color scientists would call violet. Helmholtz says "Yellow and indigo blue" are complements.  Grassmann reconstructs Newton's category boundaries in terms of wavelengths and says "This indigo therefore falls within the limits of color between which, according to Helmholtz, the complementary colors of yellow lie." 

Newton's own color circle has yellow directly opposite the boundary between indigo and violet. These results, that the complement of yellow is a wavelength shorter than 450 nm, are derivable from the modern CIE 1931 system of colorimetry if it is assumed that the yellow is about 580 nm or shorter wavelength, and the specified white is the color of a blackbody radiator of temperature 2800 K or lower (that is, the white of an ordinary incandescent light bulb). More typically, with a daylight-colored or around 5000 to 6000 K white, the complement of yellow will be in the blue wavelength range, which is the standard modern answer for the complement of yellow.

Lasers

Lasers emitting in the yellow part of the spectrum are less common and more expensive than most other colors.  In commercial products diode pumped solid state (DPSS) technology is employed to create the yellow light. An infrared laser diode at 808 nm is used to pump a crystal of neodymium-doped yttrium vanadium oxide (Nd:YVO4) or neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) and induces it to emit at two frequencies (281.76 THz and 223.39 THz: 1064 nm and 1342 nm wavelengths) simultaneously. This deeper infrared light is then passed through another crystal containing potassium, titanium and phosphorus (KTP), whose non-linear properties generate light at a frequency that is the sum of the two incident beams (505.15 THz); in this case corresponding to the wavelength of 593.5 nm ("yellow").  This wavelength is also available, though even more rarely, from a helium–neon laser. However, this not a true yellow, as it exceeds 590 nm. A variant of this same DPSS technology using slightly different starting frequencies was made available in 2010, producing a wavelength of 589 nm, which is considered a true yellow color.  The use of yellow lasers at 589 nm and 594 nm have recently become more widespread thanks to the field of optogenetics. 

Astronomy

Stars of spectral classes F and G, such as our Sun, have color temperatures that make them look "yellowish".  The first astronomer to classify stars according to their color was F. G. W. Struve in 1827. One of his classifications was flavae, or yellow, and this roughly corresponded to stars in the modern spectral range F5 to K0.  The Strömgren photometric system for stellar classification includes a 'y' or yellow filter that is centered at a wavelength of 550 nm and has a bandwidth of 20–30 nm.  

Biology

Autumn leaves, yellow flowers, bananas, oranges and other yellow fruit all contain carotenoids, yellow and red organic pigments that are found in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthetic organisms like algae, some bacteria and some fungi. They serve two key roles in plants and algae: they absorb light energy for use in photosynthesis, and they protect the green chlorophyll from photodamage. 

In late summer, as daylight hours shorten and temperatures cool, the veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf are gradually closed off. The water and mineral intake into the leaf is reduced, slowly at first, and then more rapidly. It is during this time that the chlorophyll begins to decrease.
As the chlorophyll diminishes, the yellow and red carotenoids become more and more visible, creating the classic autumn leaf color.

Carotenoids are common in many living things; they give the characteristic color to carrots, corn, daffodils, rutabagas, buttercups and bananas. They are responsible for the red of cooked lobsters, the pink of flamingoes and salmon and the yellow of canaries and egg yolks.

Xanthophylls are the most common yellow pigments that form one of two major divisions of the carotenoid group. The name is from Greek xanthos (ξανθος, "yellow") + phyllon (φύλλον, "leaf"). Xanthophylls are most commonly found in the leaves of green plants, but they also find their way into animals through the food they eat. For example, the yellow color of chicken egg yolks, fat, and skin comes from the feed the chickens consume. Chicken farmers understand this, and often add xanthophylls, usually lutein, to make the egg yolks more yellow.

Bananas are green when they are picked because of the chlorophyll their skin contains. Once picked, they begin to ripen; hormones in the bananas convert amino acids into ethylene gas, which stimulates the production of several enzymes. These enzymes start to change the color, texture and flavor of the banana. The green chlorophyll supply is stopped and the yellow color of the carotenoids replaces it; eventually, as the enzymes continue their work, the cell walls break down and the bananas turn brown.

Yellow is the most visible color, and is particularly attractive to birds and insects. It is believed that the vision of birds is particularly sensitive to certain colors, such as yellow. Yellow pan traps are used to capture insects, many of which are attracted to shades of yellow.  

File:Fall colors near the Eagle Lake trailhead.jpg|Autumn colors along the Eagle River near Anchorage, Alaska
File:Cornwall Daffodils.jpg|Daffodils in Cornwall
File:Bananas.jpg|Bananas, like autumn leaves, canaries and egg yolks, get their yellow color from natural pigments called carotenoids.
File:Raw egg.jpg|The yolk of a raw egg. The color comes from the xanthophyll carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin

Birds

*Yellow-breasted chats (Icteria virens) are large foraging songbird found in southern parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America. They are olive with a white belly and a yellow throat and breast, with a long tail, a thick heavy bill, a large white eye ring and dark legs.
* The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a passerine in the bunting family Emberizidae. It breeds across Europe and much of Asia. Most yellowhammers are resident, but some far northern birds migrate south in winter. It is common in all sorts of open areas with some scrub or trees. They are large with a thick seed-eater's bill. The males have a bright yellow head, yellow underparts and a heavily streaked brown back. Females are much duller and more streaked below.
* The yellow-shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a large woodpecker of eastern North America. It is a subspecies of the northern flicker. They have yellow shafts on their wing and tail feathers.
* The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a species of warbler living in most of North America who is completely yellow other than a few red streaks on the breast and head in males.
* The domestic canary (Serinus canaria) is the domesticated form of the wild canary, a small songbird. The color canary yellow is named after the domestic canary, which can be selectively bred to be yellow.
* The American goldfinch

File:YellowbreastedChat23.jpg|Yellow-breasted chat
File:Gulspurv.jpg|Yellowhammer
File:Dendroica-aestiva-001.jpg|A male yellow warbler
File:Gelber Kanarienvogel.JPG|A domestic canary
File:Yellow budgerigar (1).jpg|Budgerigar

Fish

*Yellowtail is the common name for dozens of different fish species that have yellow tails or a yellow body.
*Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) is a species of tuna, having bright yellow anal and second dorsal fins. Found in tropical and subtropical seas and weighing up to 200 kg, it is caught as a replacement for depleted stocks of bluefin tuna.

Insects

* The yellow-fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is a mosquito so named because it transmits dengue fever and yellow fever, the mosquito-borne viruses.
*Yellowjackets are black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula (though some can be black-and-white, the most notable of these being the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata). They can be identified by their distinctive black-and-yellow color, small size (slightly larger than a bee), and entirely black antennae.

Trees

* The yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) is a birch species native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and southern Quebec west to Minnesota, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. They are medium-sized deciduous trees and can reach about 20 m tall, trunks up to 80 cm in diameter. The bark is smooth and yellow-bronze,  and the wood is extensively used for flooring, cabinetry, and toothpicks.
* The thorny yellowwood is an Australian rainforest tree which has deep yellow wood.
*Yellow poplar is a common name for Liriodendron, the tuliptree. The common name is inaccurate as this genus is not related to poplars.
* The Handroanthus albus is a tree with yellow flowers native to the Cerrado of Brazil.

Flowers

Yellow is the most common color of flowers; the color makes it the most visible to the insects who are needed to bring pollen to the flowers.

File:Mimosa Colombe d'Or Saint Paul de Vence.JPG|Acacia dealbata (silver wattle)
File:Aconitum lycoctonum DSCF1355.JPG|Aconitum lycoctonum (northern wolfsbane)
File:Mother and daughter edit.jpg| Anthemis tinctoria (golden marguerite)
File:Anthyllis vulneraria, AlpenWundklee 1.JPG|Anthyllis vulneraria (common kidneyvetch)
File:Arnica montana.JPG|Arnica montana (leopard's bane)
File:Balsamorhiza sagittata.jpg| Balsamorhiza sagittata (arrowleaf balsamroot)
File:Brugmansia aurea 12.jpg|Brugmansia aurea (angel's trumpet)
File:Calendula officinalis L.JPG| Calendula officinalis (pot marigold)
File:Digitalis grandiflora-Kaernten-2008-Thomas Huntke.jpg|Digitalis grandiflora (big-flowered foxglove)
File:Yellow Coneflower Echinacea paradoxa Twisted Pair DoF 2000px.jpg| Echinacea paradoxa (yellow coneflower)
File:Eranthis_hyemalis.JPG|Eranthis hyemalis
File:Eschscholzia californica in Sedovo 001.jpg| Eschscholzia californica (California poppy)
File:Forsythiax.JPG| Forsythia × intermedia (border forsythia)
File:Gagea close-up.jpg|Gagea lutea
File:Gazania rigens-1.jpg| Gazania rigens (coastal gazania)
File:Chrysanthemum coronarium May 2008.jpg| Glebionis coronaria (crown daisy)
File:Sunflower sky backdrop.jpg| Helianthus annuus (sunflower)
File:Hibisc.jpg| Hibiscus syriacus cultivar (common hibiscus)
File:Hieracium murorum duet.jpg| Hieracium muorum (wall hawkweed)
File:Hypericum perforatum 007.JPG|Hypericum perforatum (common St. John's wort)
File:Iris pseudacorus iris des marais.jpg|Iris pseudacorus (yellow flag iris)
File:Jacobaea aquatica.jpg| Jacobaea aquatica (marsh ragwort)
File:Echter Winterjasmin HD.JPG|Jasminum nudiflorum (winter jasmine)
File:Kerriaj1.jpg| Kerria japonica (kerria)
File:Kleines Löwenmaul.JPG|Linaria vulgaris (common toadflax)
File:Narzisse.jpg| Narcissus (plant) (daffodil)
File:Opuntia humifusa flower.jpg| Opuntia humifusa (eastern prickly pear)
File:Osteospermum dandenong (yellow).jpg| Osteospermum
File:Oxalis-pes-caprae0021c.jpg| Oxalis pes-caprae (Bermuda buttercup)
File:Primula elatior 170405.jpg|Primula elatior (true oxlip)
File:Ranunculus repens LC0036.jpg| Ranunculus repens (creeping buttercup)
File:Rosa Gold Glow 2.jpg| Rose (yellow roses)
File:Saxifraga aizoides.jpg|Saxifraga aizoides (yellow saxifrage)
File:Tanacetum vulgare 002.JPG|Tanacetum vulgare (tansy)
File:Taraxacum officinalis DSC02042.JPG|Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia (dandelion)
File:Globeflower Trollius laxus Flower 2400px.jpg| Trollius laxus (globeflower)
File:Vessertal trollblumen.jpg|Trollius europaeus (globe-flower)
File:Leskenlehti, Luolala, Naantali, 24.4.2010.JPG| Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot)
File:Viola tricoloryellow.jpg| Viola tricolor cultivar (pansy)
File:Symrer1.jpg|Anemone ×lipsiensis with its parents

Other plants

*Rapeseed (Brassica napus), also known as rape or oilseed rape, is a bright yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family).
*Goldenrod is a yellow flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.

Minerals and chemistry

* Yellowcake (also known as urania and uranic oxide) is concentrated uranium oxide, obtained through the milling of uranium ore. Yellowcake is used in the preparation of fuel for nuclear reactors and in uranium enrichment, one of the essential steps for creating nuclear weapons.
* Titan yellow (also known as clayton yellow),  chemical formula  has been used to determine magnesium in serum and urine, but the method is prone to interference, making the ammonium phosphate method superior when analysing blood cells, food or fecal material. 
* Methyl yellow (p-Dimethylaminoazobenzene) is a pH indicator used to determine acidity. It changes from yellow at pH4.0 to red at pH
2.9.  
* Yellow fireworks are produced by adding sodium compounds to the firework mixture. Sodium has a strong emission at 589.3 nm (D-line), a very slightly orange-tinted yellow.
* Amongst the elements, sulfur and gold are most obviously yellow. Phosphorus, arsenic and antimony have allotropes which are yellow or whitish-yellow; fluorine and chlorine are pale yellowish gases.

Pigments

* Yellow ochre (also known as Mars yellow, Pigment yellow 42, 43),  hydrated ferric oxide (), is a naturally occurring pigment found in clays in many parts of the world. It is non-toxic and has been used in painting since prehistoric times. 
* Indian yellow is a transparent, fluorescent pigment used in oil paintings and watercolors. Originally magnesium euxanthate, it was claimed to have been produced from the urine of Indian cows fed only on mango leaves.  It has now been replaced by synthetic Indian yellow hue.
* Naples Yellow (lead antimonate yellow) is one of the oldest synthetic pigments, derived from the mineral bindheimite and used extensively up to the 20th century.  It is toxic and nowadays is replaced in paint by a mixture of modern pigments.
* Cadmium Yellow (cadmium sulfide, CdS) has been used in artists' paints since the mid-19th century.  Because of its toxicity, it may nowadays be replaced by azo pigments.
* Chrome Yellow (lead chromate, ), derived from the mineral crocoite, was used by artists in the earlier part of the 19th century, but has been largely replaced by other yellow pigments because of the toxicity of lead. 
* Zinc yellow or zinc chromate is a synthetic pigment made in the 19th century, and used by the painter Georges Seurat in his pointilist paintings. He did not know that it was highly unstable, and would quickly turn brown.
* Titanium Yellow (nickel antimony titanium yellow rutile, ) is created by adding small amounts of the oxides of nickel and antimony to titanium dioxide and heating. It is used to produce yellow paints with good white coverage and has the LBNL paint code "Y10". 
* Gamboge is an orange-brown resin, derived from trees of the genus Garcinia, which becomes yellow when powdered.  It was used as a watercolor pigment in the far east from the 8th century – the name "gamboge" is derived from "Cambodia" – and has been used in Europe since the 17th century. 
* Orpiment, also called King's Yellow or Chinese Yellow is arsenic trisulfide () and was used as a paint pigment until the 19th century when, because of its high toxicity and reaction with lead-based pigments, it was generally replaced by Cadmium Yellow. 
* Azo-dye based pigment (a brightly colored transparent or semitransparent dye with a white pigment) is used as the colorant in most modern paints requiring either a highly saturated yellow or simplicity of color mixing. The most common is the monoazo arylide yellow family, first marketed as Hansa Yellow.

Dyes

* Curcuma longa, also known as turmeric, is a plant grown in India and Southeast Asia which serves as a dye for clothing, especially monks' robes; as a spice for curry and other dishes; and as a popular medicine. It is also used as a food coloring for mustard and other products. 
* Saffron, like turmeric, is one of the rare dyes that is also a spice and food colorant. It is made from the dried red stigma of the crocus sativus flower. It must be picked by hand and it takes 150 flowers to obtain a single gram of stigma, so it is extremely expensive. It probably originated in the Mediterranean or Southwest Asia, and its use was detailed in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal. It was known in India at the time of the Buddha, and after his death his followers decreed that monks should wear robes the color of saffron. Saffron was used to dye the robes of the senior Buddhist monks, while ordinary monks wore robes dyed with Gamboge or Curcuma longa, also known as Turmeric.

The color of saffron comes from crocin, a red variety of carotenoid natural pigment. The color of the dyed fabric varies from deep red to orange to yellow, depending upon the type of saffron and the process. Most saffron today comes from Iran, but it is also grown commercially in Spain, Italy and Kashmir in India, and as a boutique crop in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and other countries. In the United States, it has been cultivated by the Pennsylvania Dutch community since the early 18th century. Because of the high price of saffron, other similar dyes and spices are often sold under the name saffron; for instance, what is called Indian saffron is often really turmeric.

* Reseda luteola, also known as dyers weed, yellow weed or weld, has been used as a yellow dye from neolithic times. It grew wild along the roads and walls of Europe, and was introduced into North America, where it grows as a weed. It was used as both as a yellow dye, whose color was deep and lasting, and to dye fabric green, first by dyeing it blue with indigo, then dyeing it with reseda luteola to turn it a rich, solid and lasting green. It was the most common yellow dye in Europe from the Middle Ages until the 18th century, when it was replaced first by the bark of the quercitron tree from North America, then by synthetic dyes. It was also widely used in North Africa and in the Ottoman Empire. 
* Gamboge is a deep saffron to mustard yellow pigment and dye.  In Asia, it is frequently used to dye Buddhist monks' robes.   Gamboge is most often extracted by tapping resin from various species of evergreen trees of the family Guttiferae, which grow in Cambodia, Thailand, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. "Kambuj" (Sanskrit: कंबुज) is the ancient Sanskrit name for Cambodia.

File:Orpiment mineral.jpg|Orpiment was a source of yellow pigment from ancient Egypt through the 19th century, though it is highly toxic.
File:Indisch-Gelb.jpg|Indian yellow pigment
File:Lead chromate.JPG|Chrome yellow was discovered in 1809.
File:Saffran crocus sativus moist.jpg|The dye and spice saffron comes from the dried red stigma of this plant, the crocus sativus.
File:Curcuma longa (Haldi) W IMG 2440.jpg|Curcuma longa, also known as Turmeric, has been used for centuries in India as a dye, particularly for monk's robes. it is also commonly used as a medicine and as a spice in Indian cooking.
File:Reseda luteola (Flowers).jpg|Reseda luteola, also known as dyers weed, yellow weed or weld, was the most popular source of yellow dye in Europe from the Middle Ages through the 18th century.
File:Garcinia subelliptica (200703).jpg|The Garcinia tree of Southeast Asia, whose resin is used to make the yellow dye called gamboge.
File:Yellow spectra Abney 1891.png|Reflectance spectra of yellow pigments, as a percentage of white (Abney 1891)
File:Titan yellow.svg|Structure of Titan yellow

Food coloring

The most common yellow food coloring in use today is called Tartrazine. It is a synthetic lemon yellow azo dye.  It is also known as E number E102, C.I. 19140, FD&C yellow 5, acid yellow 23, food yellow 4, and trisodium 1-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-4-(4-sulfonatophenylazo)-5-pyrazolone-3-carboxylate.  It is the yellow most frequently used such processed food products as corn and potato chips, breakfast cereals such as corn flakes, candies, popcorn, mustard, jams and jellies, gelatin, soft drinks (notably Mountain Dew), energy and sports drinks, and pastries. It is also widely used in liquid and bar soap, shampoo, cosmetics and medicines. Sometimes it is mixed with blue dyes to color processed products green.

It is typically labelled on food packages as "color", "tartrazine", or "E102". In the United States, because of concerns about possible health problems related to intolerance to tartrazine, its presence must be declared on food and drug product labels. 

Another popular synthetic yellow coloring is Sunset Yellow FCF (also known as orange yellow S, FD&C yellow 6 and C.I. 15985) It is manufactured from aromatic hydrocarbons from petroleum. When added to foods sold in Europe, it is denoted by E number E110. 

Symbolism and associations

In the west, yellow is not a well-loved color; in a 2000 survey, only six percent of respondents in Europe and America named it as their favorite color. compared with 45 percent for blue, 15 percent for green, 12 percent for red, and 10 percent for black. For seven percent of respondents, it was their least favorite color.  Yellow is the color of ambivalence and contradiction; the color associated with optimism and amusement; but also with betrayal, duplicity, and jealousy. But in China and other parts of Asia, yellow is a color of virtue and nobility.

In China

Yellow has strong historical and cultural associations in China, where it is the color of happiness, glory, and wisdom. In China, there are five directions of the compass; north, south, east, west, and the middle, each with a symbolic color. Yellow signifies the middle. China is called the Middle Kingdom; the palace of the Emperor was considered to be in the exact center of the world. 

The legendary first emperor of China was called the Yellow Emperor. The last emperor of China, Puyi (1906–67), described in his memoirs how every object which surrounded him as a child was yellow. "It made me understand from my most tender age that I was of a unique essence, and it instilled in me the consciousness of my "celestial nature" which made me different from every other human." – original 

The Chinese Emperor was literally considered the child of heaven, with both a political and religious role, both symbolized by yellow. Only members of the Imperial household were permitted to wear yellow. Distinguished visitors were honored with a yellow, not a red, carpet.

In Chinese symbolism, yellow, red and green are masculine colors, while black and white are considered feminine. In the traditional symbolism of the two opposites which complement each other, the yin and yang, the masculine yang is traditionally represented by yellow. Just as there are five elements, five directions and five colors in the Chinese world-view, there are also five seasons; summer, winter, fall, spring, and the end of summer, symbolized by yellow leaves.

File:Zhengde.jpg|Portrait of the Zhengde Emperor from the Ming dynasty.
File:Portrait of the Qianlong Emperor in Court Dress.jpg|The Qianlong Emperor in court dress (18th century).
File:Hall of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City, Beijing, with tourists 2.jpg|Yellow roofs in the Forbidden City, which are limited to imperial buildings.
File:Shanghainanjingroadpic1.jpg|Neon lights in modern Shanghai show a predominance of red and yellow

Light and reason

Yellow, as the color of sunlight, is commonly associated with warmth. Yellow combined with red symbolized heat and energy. A room painted yellow feels warmer than a room painted white, and a lamp with yellow light seems more natural than a lamp with white light.

As the color of light, yellow is also associated with knowledge and wisdom. In English and many other languages, "brilliant" and "bright" mean intelligent. In Islam, the yellow color of gold symbolizes wisdom. In medieval European symbolism, red symbolized passion, blue symbolized the spiritual, and yellow symbolized reason. In many European universities, yellow gowns and caps are worn by members of the faculty of physical and natural sciences, as yellow is the color of reason and research. 

Gold and blond

The word for 'gold' in Latin is aurum, which means yellow. In ancient Greece, some gods were depicted with yellow hair, and men commonly bleached their hair or spent hours in the sun to turn it yellow. However, in medieval Europe and later, the word yellow often had negative connotations; so yellow hair was more poetically called 'blond,' 'light', 'fair,' or especially 'golden.' 

Visibility and caution

Yellow is the most visible color from a distance, so it is often used for objects that need to be seen, such as fire engines, road maintenance equipment, school buses and taxicabs. It is also often used for warning signs, since yellow traditionally signals caution, rather than danger. Safety yellow is often used for safety and accident prevention information. A yellow light on a traffic signal means slow down, but not stop. A yellow penalty card in a soccer match means warning, but not expulsion.

File:ICCE Illinois School Bus.jpg|School bus
File:Gelber Briefkasten der Deutschen Post.JPG|A mailbox in Germany. Yellow was the color of the early postal service in the Habsburg Empire.
File:Crashtender BC.jpg|A crashtender of the Royal Danish Air Force.
File:Sea King HAR3 XZ585 at RIAT 2010 arp.jpg|An RAF Sea King rescue helicopter.
File:Martin Atkinson yellow card Carr Rosicky.jpg|Yellow penalty card given during the match between Arsenal F.C. and Birmingham City F.C. (2010)

Optimism and pleasure

Yellow is the color most associated with optimism and pleasure; it is a color designed to attract attention, and is used for amusement. Yellow dresses in fashion are rare, but always associated with gaiety and celebration.

File:L'impératrice Eugénie à la Marie-Antoinette, 1854, Franz Xaver Winterhalter.jpg|The Empress Eugenie dressed as Marie Antoinette, painted by Franz Winterhalter (1854)
File:Kuznetsova by Repin.jpg|Portrait of Madame Kuznetsova, by Ilya Repin. (1901)
File:James Tissot - The Ball.jpg|The Ball by James Tissot (1880)
File:Basil Soda Yellow Dress - Paris Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2012.jpg|Yellow Dress - Paris Haute Couture Spring-Summer
File:Flickr - dalbera - Danseuses de Kuchipudi (musée Guimet).jpg|Kuchipudi dansers
File:Kylie Minogue IMG 4379.JPG|Singer Kylie Minogue performs at a Nobel Prize Concert

In other cultures

*The ancient Maya associated the color yellow with the direction South. The Maya glyph for "yellow" (k'an) also means "precious" or "ripe". 
*Yellow" ("giallo"), in Italy, refers to crime stories, both fictional and real. This association began in about 1930, when the first series of crime novels published in Italy had yellow covers.
*The term "yellow movie" (黃色電影) can refer to films of pornographic nature in Chinese culture, and is analogous to the English "blue movie". 

Music

* The Beatles 1966 album Revolver features the No. 1 hit, "Yellow Submarine". Subsequently United Artists released an animated film in 1968 called Yellow Submarine, based on the music of the Beatles.
* The March 1967 album by Donovan called Mellow Yellow reached number 2 on the U.S. Billboard charts in 1966 and number 8 in the UK in early 1967. The featured song on the album, "Mellow Yellow", popularized during the Spring of 1967 a widely believed hoax that it was possible to get high by smoking scrapings from the inside of banana peels, although this rumor was actually started in 1966 by Country Joe McDonald.
* Coldplay achieved worldwide fame with their 2000 single "Yellow".
* "Yellow River" is a song recorded by the British band Christie in 1970.
* The "Yellow River Piano Concerto" is a piano concerto arranged by a collaboration between musicians including Yin Chengzong and Chu Wanghua. Its premiere was in 1969 during the Cultural Revolution.

Politics

* In the United States, a yellow dog Democrat was a Southern voter who consistently voted for Democratic candidates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of lingering resentment against the Republicans dating back to the Civil War and Reconstruction period. Today the term refers to a hard-core Democrat, supposedly referring to a person who would vote for a "yellow dog" before voting for a Republican.
* In China the Yellow Turbans were a Daoist sect that staged an extensive rebellion during the Han Dynasty.
* Yellow is an important color of anarcho-capitalist symbolism.
* The 1986 People Power Revolution in the Philippines was also known as the Yellow Revolution due to the presence of yellow ribbons during the demonstrations.
* Contemporary political parties using yellow include the Liberal Democrats and UKIP in the UK, SNP in Scotland and PUP in Australia.

Historic flags

File:Heiliges Römisches Reich - Reichssturmfahne vor 1433.svg|The banner of the Holy Roman Empire (15th century). The black, yellow and red colors reappeared first in 1848 and then in the 20th century in the German flag.
File:Flag of the Gran Colombia (1819-1820).svg| (1819) The flag of Gran Colombia, which won independence from Spain, then broke into three countries (Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador) in 1830.
File:Flag_of_the_Qing_Dynasty_(1889-1912).svg|Imperial flag of the Qing Dynasty, China (1890–1912), the last dynasty of China, overthrown by the Xinhai Revolution of 1911.
File:Flag of South Vietnam.svg|Flag of South Vietnam (1955–75). This was the flag of the capitalist southern part of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It was replaced by the flag of North Vietnam after communist forces took Saigon on April 30, 1975.
File:Flag of East Germany.svg|The flag of East Germany (1959–90). It differs from the West German flag by the presence of a communist symbol in the center, and it fell out of use when Germany was reunified after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Selected national and international flags

Three of the five most populous countries in the world (China, India, and Brazil) have yellow or gold in their flag, representing about half of the world's population. While many flags use yellow, their symbolism varies widely, from civic virtue to golden treasure, golden fields, the desert, royalty, the keys to Heaven and the leadership of the Communist Party. In classic European heraldry, yellow, along with white, is one of the two metals (called gold and silver) and therefore flags following heraldic design rules must use either yellow or white to separate any of their other colors (see rule of tincture).

File:Flag of India.svg|Flag of India (1947). The yellow color is officially called India saffron, and represents courage and sacrifice.
File:Flag of Germany.svg|Flag of Germany. Black, red and yellow were the colors of the Holy Roman Emperor, and, in 1919, of the German Weimar Republic. The modern German flag was adopted in 1949.
File:Flag of Ukraine.svg|Flag of Ukraine (1992 (originally in 1918)).
File:Flag of Belgium.svg|Flag of Belgium (1831). The yellow comes from the yellow lion in the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant, founded in 1183–84.
File:Flag of Bhutan.svg|Flag of Bhutan (1956). The Bhutan flag features Druk, the thunder dragon of Bhutanese mythology. The yellow represents civic tradition, the red the Buddhist spiritual tradition.
File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg|Flag of the People's Republic of China (1949). The four small gold stars represent the workers, peasants, urban middle class, and rural middle class. The large star represents the Chinese Communist Party.
File:Flag of Brazil.svg|Flag of Brazil (1889). The yellow color was inherited from the flag of the Empire of Brazil (1822–1889), where it represented the color of the House of Habsburg.
File:Flag of Brunei.svg|Flag of Brunei (1956). In Southeast Asia yellow is the color of royalty. it is the color of the Sultan of Brunei, and also appears on the flag of Thailand and of Malaysia.
File:Flag of Colombia.svg|Flag of Colombia. The asymmetric design of the flag is based on the old Flag of Gran Colombia. The yellow color represents the golden treasure taken from Colombia over the centuries.
File:Flag of Spain.svg|Flag of Spain (1978). The yellow in the Spanish flag comes from the traditional Crown of Castille and the Crown of Aragon. The general design was adopted in 1785 for the Spanish Navy, to be visible from a great distance at sea.
File:Flag of Lithuania.svg|Flag of Lithuania (1918 to 1940, restored in 1989, modified in 2004). Yellow represents the golden fields of Lithuania, green the countryside, and red the blood of Lithuanian martyrs.
File:Flag of Malaysia.svg|Flag of Malaysia (original version, 1950, current version 1963.) The yellow crescent represents Islam, the yellow star the unity of the fourteen states of Malaysia. The red and white stripes (like the stripes on the U.S. flag) are adopted from the flag of the British East India Company.
File:Flag of Mozambique.svg|Flag of Mozambique (1983). The colors are those of the Marxist Liberation Front of Mozambique, or FRELIMO, which rules the country. Yellow represents the country's mineral wealth.
File:Flag of Romania.svg|Flag of Romania (1848, and again in 1989, after the fall of the Communist regime.) Blue, yellow and red were the colors of the Wallachian uprising of 1821, and the 1848 revolution which won independence for Romania. Yellow represents justice.
File:Flag of Sweden.svg|Flag of Sweden (adopted 1906, but colors in use since at least the mid-16th century). The legend says that in 1157, during the First Swedish Crusade, the Swedish king Eric the Holy saw a golden cross appear in the blue sky.
File:Flag of Chad.svg|Flag of Chad (1959). The color yellow here represents the sun and the desert in the north of the country. This flag is identical to that of Romania, except that it uses a slightly darker indigo blue rather than cobalt blue.
File:Flag of Europe.svg|Flag of the European Union. The flag of the European Union was first created for the Council of Europe in 1953, then adopted by the European Union in 1985. The twelve yellow or gold stars do not represent any particular countries; twelve was chosen as a number which represented unity and harmony. 
File:Flag of the Vatican City.svg|Flag of Vatican City (1929). The yellow color represents the golden key of the Kingdom of heaven, described in the Book of Matthew of the New Testament, and part of the Papal seal on the flag. 

Religion

* in The Roman Catholic church, yellow symbolizes gold, and the golden key to the Kingdom of Heaven, which Christ gave to Saint Peter. The flag of the Vatican City and the colors of the pope are yellow and white, symbolizing the gold key and the silver key. White and yellow together can also symbolize easter, rebirth and Resurrection. Golden haloes mark the saints in religious paintings. Yellow also has a negative meaning, symbolizing betrayal; Judas Iscariot is usually portrayed wearing a pale yellow toga, and without a halo.
* In Hinduism, the divinity Krishna is commonly portrayed dressed in yellow. Yellow and saffron are also the colors worn by sadhu, or wandering holy men in India.
* In Buddhism, the saffron colors of robes to be worn by monks were defined by the Buddha himself and his followers in the 5th century BC. The robe and its color is a sign of renunciation of the outside world and commitment to the order. The candidate monk, with his master, first appears before the monks of the monastery in his own clothes, with his new robe under his arm, and asks to enter the order. He then takes his vows, puts on the robes, and with his begging bowl, goes out to the world. Thereafter, he spends his mornings begging and his afternoons in contemplation and study, either in a forest, garden, or in the monastery. 

According to Buddhist scriptures and commentaries, the robe dye is allowed to be obtained from six kinds of substances: roots and tubers, plants, bark, leaves, flowers and fruits. The robes should also be boiled in water a long time to get the correctly sober color. Saffron and ochre, usually made with dye from the curcuma longa plant or the heartwood of the jackfruit tree, are the most common colors. The so-called forest monks usually wear ochre robes and city monks saffron, though this is not an official rule. 

The color of robes also varies somewhat among the different "vehicles", or schools of Buddhism, and by country, depending on their doctrines and the dyes available. The monks of the strict Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, practiced in Tibet, wear the most colorful robes of saffron and red. The monks of Mahayana Buddhism, practiced mainly in Japan, China and Korea, wear lighter yellow or saffron, often with white or black. Monks of Hinayana Buddhism, practiced in Southeast Asia, usually wear ochre or saffron color. Monks of the forest tradition in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia wear robes of a brownish ochre, dyed from the wood of the jackfruit tree. 

* In the religions of the islands of Polynesia, yellow is a sacred color, the color of the divine essence; the word "yellow" in the local languages is the same as the name of the curcuma longa plant, which is considered the food of the gods.

File:Gesupietrochiave.jpg|Christ giving the golden key of the kingdom heaven to Saint Peter (1481–82), by Pietro Perugino. The golden key is the symbol of the Pope.
File:Benedykt XVI (2010-10-17) 4.jpg|Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope traditionally wears gold and white outside St. Peter's Basilica.
File:Rank celebration of Thai Buddhist monk 1.jpg|Buddhist monks at the promotion ceremony of a monk in Thailand
File:Buddhist monks of Tibet7.jpg|Buddhist monks in Tibet
File:Ueno monk.jpg|A Japanese Buddhist monk in downtown Tokyo
File:Sadou Kathmandu 04 04.jpg|A Hindu sadhu, or ascetic wandering monk or holy man, in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Metaphysics

* In the metaphysics of the New Age Prophetess, Alice A. Bailey, in her system called the Seven Rays which classifies humans into seven different metaphysical psychological types, the fourth ray of harmony through conflict is represented by the color yellow. People who have this metaphysical psychological type are said to be on the Yellow Ray." 
* Yellow is used to symbolically represent the third, solar plexus chakra (Manipura). 
* Psychics who claim to be able to observe the aura with their third eye report that someone with a yellow aura is typically someone who is in an occupation requiring intellectual acumen, such as a scientist. 

Sports

* In Association football (soccer), the referee shows a yellow card to indicate that a player has been officially warned because they have committed a foul or have wasted time.
* Originally in Rugby League and then later, also in Rugby Union, the referee shows a yellow card to indicate that a player has been sent to the sin bin.
* In cycle racing, the yellow jersey – or maillot jaune – is awarded to the leader in some stage races. The tradition was begun in the Tour de France where the sponsoring L'Auto newspaper (later L'Équipe) was printed on distinctive yellow newsprint.

Transportation

* In some countries, taxicabs are commonly yellow. This practice began in Chicago, where taxi entrepreneur John D. Hertz painted his taxis yellow based on a University of Chicago study alleging that yellow is the color most easily seen at a distance. 
* In Canada and the United States, school buses are almost uniformly painted a yellow color (often referred to as "school bus yellow") for purposes of visibility and safety,  and British bus operators such as FirstGroup are attempting to introduce the concept there. 
* "Caterpillar yellow" and "high-visibility yellow" are used for highway construction equipment. 
* In the rules of the road, yellow (called "amber" in Britain) is a traffic light signal meaning "slow down", "caution", or "slow speed ahead", however in the US it simply means that the light will change soon.  It is intermediate between green (go) and red (stop). In railway signaling, yellow is often the color for warning, slow down, such as with distant signals.

Vexillology

* In International maritime signal flags a yellow flag denotes the letter "Q".  It also means a ship asserts that it does not need to be quarantined.

Idioms and expressions

* Yellow-belly is an American expression which means a coward.  The term comes from the 19th century and the exact origin is unknown, but it may refer to the color of sickness, which means a person lacks strength and stamina. 
* Yellow Pages refers in various countries to directories of telephone numbers, arranged alphabetically by the type of business or service offered.
* The Yellow Peril was a term used in politics and popular fiction in the late 19th and early 20th century to describe the alleged economic and cultural danger posed to Europe and America by Chinese immigration. The term was first used by Kaiser Wilhelm II in Germany in 1895, and was the subject of numerous books and later films. 
* High yellow was a term sometimes used in the early 20th century, to describe light-skinned African-Americans. Brown is a composite color. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is made by combining red, black, and yellow,   or red, yellow, and blue.  In the RGB color model used to project colors onto television screens and computer monitors, brown is made by combining red and green, in specific proportions. The brown color is seen widely in nature, in wood, soil, human hair color, eye color and skin pigmentation. Brown is the color of dark wood or rich soil.  According to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, brown is the least favorite color of the public; the color most often associated with plainness, the rustic, and poverty. 

In nature and culture 

File:Kufra-space-radar.jpg|The Sahara Desert around Kufra Oasis, Libya, seen from space
File:Sachertorte DSC03027.JPG|Chocolate. A sachertorte in a Vienna cafe.
File:Espresso-roasted coffee beans.jpg|Espresso-roasted coffee beans.
File:Large botti size oak barrels in Chianti.jpg|Oak barrels in a winery in Chianti, Italy.
File:US Navy 020913-N-0659H-003 CPO pinning ceremony.jpg|U.S. Navy sailors dressed in khaki at a ceremony. The word khaki means "earth" in the Persian language.
File:Mesteno.jpg|A dun-colored horse. Donn is the word for brown in the Scottish and Irish Gaelic languages.
File:Amber Bernstein many stones.jpg|Pieces of natural amber
File:Blondie (7452174860).jpg|A bodybuilder who has been suntanning.
File:Caramels.jpg|Pieces of caramel.
File:Photograph.sept1895.jpg|A sepia tone photograph (1895)
File:Monk church of transfiguration.jpg|A monk of the Franciscan order. Plain brown wool symbolizes humility.
File:OcherQuarry Rustrel.jpg|An ochre quarry in Rustrel, France
File:Stagnogley.JPG|Layers of soil in Ireland. Dark brown soil usually contains a high amount of decayed organic matter.
File:Chataignes.JPG|Different sorts of chestnuts
File:Russet_potato.jpg|Russet potatoes. They take their name from the color of russet, a coarse brown homespun cloth.
File:Royal Winter Fair Wool.jpg|Beige is a very light brown color, taking its name from the French word for the color of natural wool.
File:Triple Alliance.png|Puce is defined in the United States and UK as a brownish-purple or purple-brown color.   In France, where it was invented, it is described as a dark reddish brown. 
File:Talpa europaea MHNT.jpg|The color taupe takes its name from the French word for this animal, the European Mole.
File:Beige wool texture.jpg|The color drab is a dull light brown, which takes its name from drap, the old French word for undyed wool cloth.  It is best known for the olive-green shade called olive drab, formerly worn by U.S. soldiers. Drab has come to mean dull, lifeless and monotonous.
File:Monteriggioni0001.jpg|The clay soil near Siena, Italy, is the color called raw sienna.

Etymology 

The term is from Old English brún, in origin for any dusky or dark shade of color. The first recorded use of brown as a color name in English was in 1000.  
The Common Germanic adjective *brûnoz, *brûnâ meant both dark colors and a glistening or shining quality, whence burnish. The current meaning developed in Middle English from the 14th century. 

Words for the color brown around the world often come from foods or beverages; in the eastern Mediterranean, the word for brown often comes from the color of coffee; In Turkish, the word for brown is kahve rengi; in Greek, kafé, in Macedonian, kafeyev. In Southeast Asia, the color name often comes from chocolate: coklat in Malay; tsokolate in Filipino. In Japan, the word chairo means the color of tea. 

History and art 

Ancient history 

Brown has been used in art since prehistoric times. Paintings using umber, a natural clay pigment composed of iron oxide and manganese oxide, have been dated to 40,000 BC.  Paintings of brown horses and other animals have been found on the walls of the Lascaux cave dating back about 17,300 years. The female figures in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings have brown skin, painted with umber. Light tan was often used on painted Greek amphorae and vases, either as a background for black figures, or the reverse.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans produced a fine reddish brown ink, of a color called sepia, made from the ink of a variety of cuttlefish. This ink was used by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and other artists during the Renaissance, and by artists up until the present time.

In Ancient Rome, brown clothing was associated with the lower classes or barbarians. The term for the plebeians, or urban poor, was "pullati", which meant literally "those dressed in brown." 

File:Lascaux2.jpg|Painting of a dun horse on the wall of Lascaux Cave in France.
File:Maler der Grabkammer des Userhêt (II) 001.jpg|Tomb of Userhet, 1300 BC. Brown was widely used in Ancient Egypt to represent skin color.
File:Antimenes Painter - Black-figure Amphora with Herakles and Apollo Fighting Over the Tripod - Walters 4821 - Detail B.jpg|A tan terracotta background on a Greek amphora with the figures of Hercules and Apollo. (about 720 BC).

Post-classical history 

In the Middle Ages brown robes were worn by monks of the Franciscan order, as a sign of their humility and poverty. Each social class was expected to wear a color suitable to their station; and grey and brown were the colors of the poor. Russet was a coarse homespun cloth made of wool and dyed with woad and madder to give it a subdued grey or brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet. The medieval poem Piers Plowman describes the virtuous Christian: 

In the Middle Ages dark brown pigments were rarely used in art; painters and book illuminators artists of that period preferred bright, distinct colors such as red, blue and green, rather than dark colors. The umbers were not widely used in Europe before the end of the fifteenth century; The Renaissance painter and writer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) described them as being rather new in his time. 

Artists began using far greater use of browns when oil painting arrived in the late fifteenth century. During the Renaissance, artists generally used four different browns; raw umber, the dark brown clay mined from the earth around Umbria, in Italy; raw sienna, a reddish-brown earth mined near Siena, in Tuscany; burnt umber, the Umbrian clay heated until it turned a darker shade, and burnt sienna, heated until it turned a dark reddish brown. In Northern Europe, Jan van Eyck featured rich earth browns in his portraits to set off the brighter colors.

File:Leonardo da vinci, Drawings of Water Lifting Devices.jpg|Leonardo da Vinci used sepia ink, from cuttlefish, for his writing and drawing.
File:Jan van Eyck - Baudouin de Lannoy.jpg|Jan van Eyck, Portrait de Baudoin de Lannoy. (1435)

Modern history 

17th and 18th century 

The 17th and 18th century saw the greatest use of brown. Caravaggio and Rembrandt Van Rijn used browns to create chiaroscuro effects, where the subject appeared out of the darkness. Rembrandt also added umber to the ground layers of his paintings because it promoted faster drying. Rembrandt also began to use new brown pigment, called Cassel earth or Cologne earth. This was a natural earth color composed of over ninety percent organic matter, such as soil and peat. It was used by Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, and later became commonly known as Van Dyck brown.

File:Rembrandt van Rijn - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg|.Self=portrait of Rembrandt.  The older Rembrandt became the more brown he used in his paintings.
File:Anthonis van Dyck 050.jpg|Anthony van Dyck, like Rembrandt,  was attached to the pigment called Cassel earth or Cologne earth; it became known as Van Dyck brown. 

19th and 20th century 

Brown was generally hated by the French impressionists, who preferred bright, pure colors. The exception among French 19th-century artists was Paul Gauguin, who created luminous brown portraits of the people and landscapes of French Polynesia.

In Harlem in the mid-20th century, lighter brown skin was considered more socially desirable in the African-American community. In her 1942 Glossary of Harlem Slang, Zora Neale Hurston placed "high yaller", or very light brown, at the beginning of the her African American colorscale, which ran: "high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown"

In the 1920s, brown became the uniform color of the Nazi Party in Germany. The Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung (SA) wore brown uniforms and were known as the brownshirts. The color brown was used to represent the Nazi vote on maps of electoral districts in Germany. If someone voted for the Nazis, they were said to be "voting brown". The national headquarters of the Nazi party, in Munich, was called the Brown House. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 was called the Brown Revolution.  At Adolf Hitler's Obersalzberg home, the Berghof, he slept in a "bed which was usually covered by a brown quilt embroidered with a huge swastika. The swastika also appeared on Hitler's brown satin pajamas, embroidered in black against a red background on the pocket. He had a matching brown silk robe." 

Brown had originally been chosen as a Party color largely for convenience; large numbers of war-surplus brown uniforms from Germany's former colonial forces in Africa were cheaply available in the 1920s. It also suited the working-class and military images that the Party wished to convey. Through the  1930s, the Party's brown uniforms were mass-produced by the German clothing firm owned by Hugo Boss (1885-1948).  Boss became a member of the Nazi Party in 1931, and was  licensed supplier for the SA, the SS, and the Hitler Youth. After World War II he was stripped of his right to vote and his presidency of the company, but the company continued in business and still carries his name.  

In the late 20th century, brown became a common symbol in western culture for simple, inexpensive, natural and healthy. Bag lunches were carried in plain brown paper bags; packages were wrapped in plain brown paper. Brown bread and brown sugar were viewed as more natural and healthy than white bread and white sugar.

File:Paul Gauguin - Deux Tahitiennes.jpg|Two Tahitians, by Paul Gauguin (1899).
File:HJ Uniform.jpg|Uniform of the Hitler Youth movement in the 1930s.  

Brown in science and nature 

Optics 

Brown is a composite color, made by combining red, yellow and black.  In the RGB color model, which uses red, green and blue light in various combinations to make all the colors on computer and television screens, it is made by mixing red and green light.

In terms of the visible spectrum, "brown" refers to high wavelength (low frequency) hues, yellow, orange, or red, in combination with low luminance or saturation. 
Since brown may cover a wide range of the visible spectrum, composite adjectives are used such as red brown, yellowish brown, dark brown or light brown.

As a color of low intensity, brown is a tertiary color: a mix of the three subtractive primary colors is brown if the cyan content is low. Brown exists as a color perception only in the presence of a brighter color contrast.  Yellow, orange, red, or rose objects are still perceived as such if the general illumination level is low, despite reflecting the same amount of red or orange light as a brown object would in normal lighting conditions.

File:Optical grey squares orange brown.svg|The brown and orange disks of color are objectively identical, in identical gray surrounds, in this image; their perceived color categories depend on what white they are compared to. 

Brown pigments, dyes and inks 

* Raw umber and burnt umber are two of the oldest pigments used by man. Umber is a brown clay, containing a large amount of iron oxide and between five and twenty percent manganese oxide, which give the color. Its shade varies from a greenish brown to a dark brown. It takes its name from the Italian region of Umbria, where it was formerly mined. The principal source today is the island of Cyprus. Burnt umber is the same pigment which has been roasted (calcined), which turns the pigment darker and more reddish. 
* Raw sienna and burnt sienna are also clay pigments rich in iron oxide, which were mined during the Renaissance around the city of Siena in Tuscany. Sienna contains less than five percent manganese. The natural sienna earth is a dark yellow ochre color; when roasted it becomes a rich reddish brown called burnt sienna.
* Mummy brown was a pigment used in oil paints made from ground Egyptian mummies. 
* Van Dyck brown, known in Europe as Cologne earth or Cassel earth, is another natural earth pigment, that was made up largely of decayed vegetal matter. It made a rich dark brown, and was widely used during the Renaissance to the 19th century It takes its name from the painter Anthony van Dyck, but it was used by many other artists before him. It was highly unstable and unreliable, so its use was abandoned by the 20th century, though the name continues to be used for modern synthetic pigments. The color of Van Dyck brown can be recreated by mixing ivory black with mauve or with Venetian red, or mixing cadmium red with cobalt blue. 
* Mars brown. The names of the earth colors are still used, but very few modern pigments with these names actually contain natural earths; most of their ingredients today are synthetic. Mars brown is typical of these new colors, made with synthetic iron oxide pigments. The new colors have a superior coloring power and opacity, but not the delicate hue as their namesakes.
* Walnuts have been used to make a brown dye since antiquity. The Roman writer Ovid, in the first century BC described how the Gauls used the juice of the hull or husk inside the shell of the walnut to make a brown dye for wool, or a reddish dye for their hair. 
* The Chestnut tree has also been used since ancient times as a source brown dye. The bark of the tree, the leaves and the husk of the nuts have all been used to make dye. The leaves were used to make a beige or yellowish brown dye, and in the Ottoman Empire the yellow-brown from chestnut leaves was combined with indigo blue to make shades of green. 

* Sepia is a reddish-brown ink from the ink sac of the common cuttlefish Sepia. It was used for writing and drawing by the Romans, and by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and many other artists of the Renaissance.
* The Gall nut, a small round growth on oak trees caused by insects, was also used for making a dark-brown writing ink. Iron gall ink (also known as iron gall nut ink or oak gall ink) was a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic acids from the gall nut. It was the standard writing and drawing ink in Europe, from about the 12th century to the 19th century, and remained in use well into the 20th century.
File:IronOxidePigmentUSGOV.jpg|Iron oxide is the most common ingredient in brown pigments.
LimoniteUSGOV.jpg|Limonite is a form of yellowish iron ore. A clay of limonite rich in iron oxide is the source of raw sienna and burnt sienna.
File:Terra ombra naturale umber.jpg|Natural or raw umber pigment is clay rich in iron oxide and manganese.
File:Pigment sienna burnt iconofile.jpg|Burnt sienna pigment, from the region around Siena in Tuscany

Brown eyes 

In humans, brown eyes result from a relatively high concentration of melanin in the stroma of the iris, which causes light of both shorter and longer wavelengths to be absorbed   and in many parts of the world, it is nearly the only iris color present.  Dark pigment of brown eyes is most common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, Oceania, Africa, Americas, etc. as well as parts of Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.  The majority of people in the world overall have dark brown eyes. Light or medium-pigmented brown eyes are common in Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, as well as some parts of the Middle East. (See eye color).

File:Lens5.jpg|A dark brown iris is most common in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.
File:S7307583.jpg|A light brown iris is most common in West Asia, Eastern Europe and the Americas.

Brown hair 

Brown is the second most common color of human hair, after black. It is caused by higher levels of the natural dark pigment eumelanin, and lower levels of the pale pigment pheomelanin. Brown eumelanin is more common among Europeans, while black eumelanin is more often found in the hair on non-Europeans. A small amount of black eumelanin, in the absence of other pigments, results in grey hair. A small amount of brown eumelanin in the absence of other pigments results in blond hair.

In Western popular culture, a common stereotype is that brunettes are stable, serious, smart and sophisticated. A British study into hair color and the intensity of attraction found that 62 percent of the men participating in the study associated brown-haired women with stability and competence. Brunettes were described as independent and self-sufficient by 67 percent of the men, and as intelligent by 81 percent. 

File:Brunette red lipstick.jpg| Brunette is the French term for a woman with brown (brun) hair.
File:Nadeeka Perera.jpg|Nadeeka Perera, a fashion model from Sri Lanka
File:Susan Sarandon 2 by David Shankbone.jpg|Auburn hair is a reddish brown. This is actress Susan Sarandon.
File:Elena risteska.JPG|Chestnut color hair also has a reddish tint, but is less red and more brown than auburn hair. This is Macedonian singer Elena Risteska.

Brown skin 

A majority of people in the world have skin that is a shade of brown, from a very light honey brown or a golden brown, to a copper or bronze color, to a coffee color or a dark chocolate brown. Skin color and race are not the same; many people classified as "white" or "black" actually have skin that is a shade of brown. Brown skin is caused by melanin, a natural pigment which is produced within the skin in cells called melanocytes. Skin pigmentation in humans evolved to primarily regulate the amount of ultraviolet radiation penetrating the skin, controlling its biochemical effects.

Natural skin color can darken as a result of tanning due to exposure to sunlight. The leading theory is that skin color adapts to intense sunlight irradiation to provide partial protection against the ultraviolet fraction that produces damage and thus mutations in the DNA of the skin cells. There is a correlation between the geographic distribution of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and the distribution of indigenous skin pigmentation around the world. Darker-skinned populations are found in the regions with the most ultraviolet, closer to the equator, while lighter skinned populations live closer to the poles, with less UVR, though immigration has changed these patterns.

While white and black are commonly used to describe racial groups, brown is rarely used, because it crosses all racial lines.
In Brazil, the Portuguese word pardo, which can mean different shades of brown, is used to refer to multiracial people. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) asks people to identify themselves as branco (white), pardo (brown), preto (black), or amarelo (yellow). In 2008 43.8 percent of the population identified themselves as pardo.  (See Human skin color)

File:Old and wise.jpg|An elderly woman from Gambia
File:Flickr - DavidDennisPhotos.com - Man at Ruins in Cairo.jpg|A man from Egypt
File:Mariana Rios.jpg|Mariana Rios, a popular singer from Brazil
File:Changling Rinpoche.jpg|A man from Tibet
File:Peruvian woman in hat smiling.jpg|A young woman from Peru

Soil 

The thin top layer of the earth's crust on land is largely made up of soil colored different shades of brown.  Good soil is composed of about forty-five percent minerals, twenty-five percent water, twenty-five percent air, and five percent organic material, living and dead. Half the color of soil comes from minerals it contains; soils containing iron turn yellowish or reddish as the iron oxidizes. Manganese, nitrogen and sulfur turn brownish or blackish as they decay naturally. Rich and fertile soils tend to be darker in color; the deeper brown color of fertile soil comes from the decomposing of the organic matter. Dead leaves and roots become black or brown as they decay. Poorer soils are usually paler brown in color, and contain less water or organic matter.
* Mollisols are the soil type found under grassland in the Great Plains of America, the Pampas in Argentina and the Russian Steppes. The soil is 60–80 centimeters deep and is rich in nutrients and organic matter.
* Loess is a type of pale yellow or buff soil, which originated as wind-blown silt. It is very fertile, but is easily eroded by wind or water.
* Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation, whose decomposition is slowed by water. Despite its dark brown color, it is infertile, but is useful as a fuel.

File:Soil profile.png|A typical soil profile; dark brown topsoils, rich with organic matter, above reddish brown lower layers.
File:Mollisol.jpg| A profile of layers of Mollisols, the soil type found in the Great Plains of the U.S., the Pampas in Argentina, and the Russian Steppes.
File:Loess landscape china.jpg|A landscape of loess soil in China. Loess originated as windblown silt. It is very fertile but erodes easily.
File:Peat-Stack in Ness, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.jpg|A stack of peat cut from the earth in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Peat is partially decayed vegetative matter.

Mammals and birds 

A large number of mammals and predatory birds have a brown coloration. This sometimes changes seasonally, and sometimes remains the same year-round. This color is likely related to camouflage, since the backdrop of some environments, such as the forest floor, is often brown, and especially in the spring and summertime when animals like the Snowshoe Hare get brown fur.
* The brown rat or Norwegian rat (Rattus norvegicus) is one of the best known and most common rats.
* The grizzly bear (Ursus Horibilis) is a large bear found in North America. 
* The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America.
* The ermine (Mustela erminea) has a brown back in summer, or year-round in the southern reaches of its range.

File:Grizzly.jpg|The Grizzly bear, found in North America.
File:Brown bear.jpg|The brown bear is found across Eurasia and North America.
File:Natugle stor.jpg|The tawny owl. The color tawny takes its name from the old French word tané, which means to tan leather. The same word is the root of suntan and the color tan.
File:Lepus americanus 5459 cropped.jpg|The fur of the snowshoe hare is brown in the summer and turns white in winter, as a form of all-season natural camouflage.
File:Camelcalf-feeding.jpg|Camel is an effective color for camouflage in the Sahara desert, and is also a popular color for blankets and winter overcoats.

Biology 

* The solid waste excreted by human beings and many other animals is characteristically brown in color due to the presence of bilirubin, a by-product of destruction of red blood cells.

Brown in culture 

Brown is the least-loved of colors. A survey showed that brown was the favorite color of only one percent of respondents, ranked below white and pink, and the least-favorite color of twenty-percent of people, even less popular than pink, gray and violet. 

Brown uniforms 

Brown has been a popular color for military uniforms since the late 18th century, largely because of its wide availability and low visibility. When the Continental Army was established in 1775 at the outbreak of the American Revolution, the first Continental Congress declared that the official uniform color would be brown, but this was not popular with many militias, whose officers were already wearing blue. In 1778 the Congress asked George Washington to design a new uniform, and in 1779 Washington made the official color of all uniforms blue and buff. 

In 1846 the Indian soldiers of the Corps of Guides in British India began to wear a yellowish shade of tan, which became known as khaki from the Urdu word for dust-colored, taken from an earlier Persian word for soil. The color made an excellent natural camouflage, and was adopted by the British Army for their Abyssian Campaign in 1867–1868, and later in the Boer War. It was adopted by the United States Army during the Spanish–American War (1896), and afterwards by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.

File:33rd Punjabi Army (Commander Punjabi Subadar) by A C Lovett.jpg|The khaki uniforms of Indian soldiers in British India.
File:MacArthur Manila.jpg|General Douglas MacArthur in Khaki on August 2, 1945, near the end of World War II.
File:US Navy 080916-N-9769P-144 Newly pinned chiefs stand at attention during Naval Station Guantanamo Bay's Chief Pinning Ceremony.jpg|Chief petty officers of the U.S. navy in their khaki service uniforms.

Business 

'  is the color of the United Parcel Service (UPS) delivery company with their trademark brown trucks and uniforms; it was earlier the color of Pullman rail cars of the Pullman Company, and was adopted by UPS both because brown is easy to keep clean, and due to favorable associations of luxury that Pullman brown evoked. UPS has filed two trademarks on the color brown to prevent other shipping companies (and possibly other companies in general) from using the color if it creates "market confusion." In its advertising, UPS refers to itself as "Brown" ("What can Brown do for you?").

File:Abraham_Lincoln_Pullman_Car.png|A Pullman rail car, in traditional brown.
File:UPS truck -804051.jpg|A UPS truck in Pullman brown

Idioms and expressions 

* "To be brown as a berry" (to be deeply suntanned)
* "To brown bag" a meal (to bring food from home to eat at work or school rather than patronizing an in-house cafeteria or a restaurant)
* "To experience a brown out" (a partial loss of electricity, less severe than a blackout)
* Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where redevelopment for infill housing is complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations. 
* '"Brown-nose" is a verb which means to be obsequious. It comes from the term for kissing the posterior of the boss in order to gain advancement.
* "In a brown study" (melancholy).

Parapsychology 

* It is said that people who have brown auras are often unethical businessmen who are in business purely for the sake of greed, or people who are just generally greedy and avaricious. 

Sports 

* The Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, take their team name from its founder and long-time coach, Paul Brown, and use brown as a team color.
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