Bill Would Loan A Founding Mass. Document To MFA

Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a bill that would let archivists loan out one of the commonwealth's founding documents for an exhibit.

The legislation would loan the original Charter of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay of 1691 to the Museum of Fine Arts for an exhibit with one of the four surviving copies of the original Magna Carta.

The exhibit will run from July 2 to Sept. 1.

The Magna Carta, written in 1215, laid out some of the liberties later enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The bill is a subject of a hearing Wednesday at the State House.

The bill would also let the 1691 charter be used when the exhibit moves to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in the town of Williamstown from September to November 2.