Yale Law School, Avalon Project

High schoolers ready for serious civics or history work often need access to original speeches, treaties, and legal documents—not just textbook summaries. Yale Law School’s Avalon Project is one of the best free collections of primary sources in law, history, and diplomacy we’ve found. Hosted by Yale, the site provides full-text versions of key documents ranging from ancient codes to modern court decisions, organized by era and topic. We love how it makes otherwise hard-to-find documents accessible for AP, dual-enrollment, or independent research projects. It’s ideal for advanced high school and college-level students who can handle dense texts and want to quote directly from primary sources in their writing. The interface is plain and sometimes a bit clunky, and you won’t find built-in study guides, but the depth and reliability are outstanding for a free resource. Pro tip: teach students to copy full citations from the site and practice annotating shorter passages before tackling entire documents.