During a clean-out in 2014, Dr. Alan Aitken found the chart rolled up in a collection of other teaching materials in a storage area that had been gaining an increasing amount of material since 1968. The chart was in very fragile condition when discovered. University officials have completed a full restoration, and the chart now rests in climate-controlled conditions designed to keep it safe. A full facsimile is available for public use.

Officials dated the chart by comparing the elements listed on it to years when they were discovered. Included on the chart were gallium and scandium, which were discovered in 1875 and 1879, respectively; not included was germanium, discovered in 1886.

Annotations on the table are in German and include the name of the lithographer and a reference to a Viennese printer.

The United Nations has designated 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of he creation of the table, by Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev.