The series of Conferences on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, now 25 years old, has provided a successful meeting place for science and technology by deliberately bringing together physicists, engineers, chemists, and metallurgists interested in the subject. During this period new classes of magnetic materials, remarkable magnetic phenomena, many magnetic devices, and various new applications of magnetism have been discovered. This paper provides a sketch of some trends in magnetics research, particularly in materials and applications, along with recollections of the early conferences. An overview is presented of the continued developments in hard and soft magnetic materials and in a variety of magnetic memory/recording media. Included are some observations on a number of advances in materials and phenomena, also with applications potential, which did not reach the marketplace, and on relationships between exploration and goal‐oriented programs. During this quarter century, information storage and processing technology has been a major stimulus for much magnetics RD, but we are now seeing some shift toward considerations of energy and resources conservation in electromagnetic devices and applications.