Finding Color: Blue

Did you know that Blue is overwhelmingly chosen as the favorite color of Americans and Europeans alike?  (It is good to know that we can agree on something.)

Though, blue was a relative latecomer in the ancient world.   Reds, Blacks, browns, pinks were used in cave markings and garments long before blue was.    Ostensibly it had something to do with the difficulty of making blue dyes given scarcity of the color year round in plants that those regions that we consider the cradles of civilization.

Later, Romans regarded blue as the color of working class, often the color of their clothing while the nobles were adorned in white, black, red or violet. 

Some Celts and Germans would dye their faces blue for battle to instill fear in the Romans and tinted their hair blue as they got old, perhaps the origins of the 'Blue hair'd old lady' colloquialism we have today.

In the Renaissance, blue was upgraded in social status as it was used in many master works.    In the east,  and blue / white porcelain was all the craze. :)

The color of our planet, used in uniforms, master works of painters and works of art throughout history, maybe 'being blue' isn't so bad, after all.   

Not bad for a color with such a short wavelength and sketchy start in human history.