Is this the world’s oldest classroom periodic table?

In 2014, the chemistry department at the University of St Andrews, UK, was instructed to clear out a storage area below one of its main lecture theatres to comply with fire safety regulations. The area was full of chemicals, equipment and laboratory paraphernalia that had accumulated since the opening of the Purdie Building in 1968. It took months to sift through the emerging material. Towards the end of the process, a stash of rolled up teaching charts emerged that had clearly been transported from the earlier chemistry laboratory in the centre of town. Within this collection was a large, extremely fragile canvas that flaked upon handling. It might be the earliest surviving example of a classroom periodic table in the world.