The study of paleosecular variation (paleo‐SV) became a separate branch of paleomagnetism more than 2 decades ago, largely because of studies of cores from lake sediments and of archeomagnetism of baked artifacts. The great prize of these studies and of the allied studies of reversals and observatory records is a description of Earth's magnetic field and an explanation of the workings of the core dynamo. The study of Holocene and Quaternary SV continues to grow vigorously, as witnessed by several papers presented at the International Quaternary (INQUA) conference in Ottawa at the end of July 1987 and the many papers submitted at the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) assembly in Vancouver, Canada, in early August 1987.