Lecture given by Paul Lauterbur at the 1983 meeting of the Corporate Associates of the American Institute of Physics. Lauterbur is introduced by physicist E. C. McIrvine. In this talk, Lauterbur covers the history of what he calls zeugmatography but which ultimately became magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This includes his early theories and experiments that lead to using MRI on a human body, the changes that needed to be made to existing nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMR) practices to create 3-D images, and current and future uses for diagnostic MRI.