This book provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the periodic system from its prehistory to the latest synthetic elements and possible future additions. The periodic system of the elements first emerged as a comprehensive classificatory and predictive tool for chemistry during the 1860s. Its subsequent embodiment in various versions has made it one of the most recognizable icons of science.

Based primarily on a symposium titled "150 Years of the Periodic Table" and held at the August 2019 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, this book describes the origins of the periodic law, developments that led to its acceptance, chemical families that the system struggled to accommodate, extension of the periodic system to include synthetic elements, and various cultural aspects of the system that were celebrated during the International Year of the Periodic Table.

Chapter 1 - Introduction: Overview and Scope

Chapter 2 - Trouble with triads
Chapter 3 - Sir John F.W. Herschel and the concept of periodicity
Chapter 4 - Vis tellurique of Alexandre-E mile Be guyer de Chancourtois
Chapter 5 - Periodicity in Britain: The periodic tables of Odling and Newlands
Chapter 6 - Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs and his Chart of the Elements
Chapter 7 - Lothar Meyer's path to periodicity
Chapter 8 - Mendeleev and his periodic system
Chapter 9 - Discovery of the elements predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev's table: Scandium, gallium, and germanium
Chapter 10 - Rare Earth Elements
Chapter 11 - History (and pre-history) of the discovery and chemistry of the noble gases
Chapter 12 - Hydrogen, helium, and metals: When astronomy met the periodic table
Chapter 13 - Hydrogen to oganesson: A philatelic celebration of the periodic table
Chapter 14 - Impact of 20th century physics on the periodic table and questions still outstanding in the 21st century
Chapter 15 - Uses of the Periodic System after Radioactivity and the Discovery of the Neutron: the contrasting views of Lise Meitner and Ida Noddack
Chapter 16- Mary Elvira Weeks and The Discovery of the Elements
Chapter 17 - From neptunium to mendelevium: element discovery and the birth of the atomic age
Chapter 18 - Transactinide elements: How the 7th row of the periodic table was discovered
Chapter 19 - Periodic table after period 7.