Harvard Book Store, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and the Cambridge Public Library welcome John Palfrey.

Tucked among a trove of medieval documents was Harvard Law School Manuscript 172, identified as a copy of the Magna Carta purchased in 1946 for $27.50, according to the library’s accession register.

The Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab published the first-ever collection of preserved U.S. datasets on Thursday, preserving them as part of its newly-established data vault project.

Harvard’s law school library paid $27.50 in 1946 to acquire what was billed as a “somewhat rubbed and damp-stained” copy of the Magna Carta from 1327 to add to its robust collection of ...

“I finally came to Harvard Law School manuscript number 172, clicked on that, expecting to see a statute book. And what I saw… was an original of the 1300 Magna Carta,” Carpenter said.