The original piezoelectric ceramic material was unmodified barium titanate. It was little used except as compositionally modified. The earliest work was by W. P. Mason and this led to improved characteristics for sonar transducers and then to phonograph cartridge applications. By the mid 1950s, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) materials were shown by B. Jaffe to have higher piezoelectric coupling and application at much higher temperatures. Over the next 10 years, many modified compositions were developed. These led to much improved sonar systems and ultrasonic cleaners and to applications in ultrasonic bonders, stereo phonograph cartridges, and even printers. The new compositions also made possible applications such as piezoelectric ceramic filters, gas ignition devices, and camera flashbulb actuators. More recently, specialized ceramics have been developed based on lead titanate and lead metaniobate, but major efforts have been directed to applications of lead titanate zirconate compositions, which now touch virtually every home and automobile. The history of compositional studies with ferroelectric ceramics is reviewed and the types of characteristics achieved are summarized. The compositional additives and some general principles to explain their behavior are discussed.