The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company was started by John Eberhard Faber in 1861 in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, by the East River at the foot of 42nd Street, on the present site of the United Nations Headquarters. After an 1872 fire, operations moved to the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, across the East River,^[1] which was acquired by Staedtler, a stationery company with global presence, in 1978. This factory was acquired by Faber-Castell USA in 1994 before being bought by Newell (Sanford) and eventually rolled into the Paper Mate brand.^[2]

Eberhard Faber had a lumber mill on Atsena Otie Key, near Cedar Key, Florida until it was destroyed following the 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane.

A German subsidiary was founded in 1922 in Neumarkt, near Nuremberg, Germany, by sons Eberhard and Lothar.^[3]

The company manufactured the original Blackwing 602 pencil, an instrument that has achieved legendary status among writers and animators.