In 1976 the Control Systems Society named three distinguished control systems specialists as Consulting Editors. One of the charges to these men was to submit an invited paper on a topic of their choice for publication without the usual IDC review procedures. At the same time Professor A.G.J. MacFarlane, Professor of Control Engineering at Cambridge University, was invited by the IDC to prepare an IEEE Press reprint book of important papers on frequency-domain methods in control and systems engineering. The coincidence of these two decisions has led to the following paper. "The Development of Frequency-Response Methods in Automatic Control" is one part of the IEEE Press book, Frequency-Response Methodr in Control Systems, edited by A.G.J. MacFarlane and sponsored by the Control Systems Society. The book will appear in mid-1979. The paper has been selected by Consulting Editor Nathaniel Nichols and should be of substantial interest to TRANSACTIONS readers. It also conveys some of the spirit and content of the book which may be purchased from IEEE Press when available.