A brief introduction to the history of the charcoal medium as used in drawings from the perspective of an art historian and a conservator. It establishes the technical characteristics of charcoal as a basis for identifying its presence in a drawing and distinguishing its use from that of other media, such as black chalk and crayon; and it examines the historical uses of charcoal in drawings from 1500 to the present, in order to evaluate some of its aesthetic constants. -- AATA