A Primary Source Activity

 Little is known of Riverside prior to his death on July 1 st, 1916, in the opening actions of what would later be called the Battle of the Somme.

 Lazarus died along with almost 20,000 others with the British Fourth Army – which is weird, because he was an American. (The U.S. wouldn’t enter the war until a year later.)

 He spoke very little, but it was known he’d come from Oklahoma, spent some time in Texas, and that he’d come to Europe after losing the love of his life to the flu – several years before the Great Flu Pandemic took so very many others. He was twenty… five…ish?

 Your name is Allen Seeker. You fought with Riverside, but couldn’t say you really knew him any better than anyone else did. You were injured several days later and sent home to resume your life as a reporter and former history teacher – but you couldn’t stop wondering about this strange, quiet young man.

 This curiosity led you on a quest to figure out the secrets of Lazarus Riverside. Who was he, really? His death seemed pointless, it was true, but how might his life have mattered? You are determined to find a story worth telling in the scattered hints left behind.

 Your name is Allen Seeker. You fought with Riverside, but couldn’t say you really knew him any better than anyone else. You were injured several days later and sent home to resume your life as a reporter and former history teacher – but you couldn’t stop wondering about this strange, quiet young man.  This curiosity led you on a quest to figure out the secrets of Lazarus Riverside. Who was he, really? His death seemed pointless, it was true, but how might his life have mattered? You are determined to find a story worth telling in the scattered hints left behind. Because you are not ACTUALLY a reporter alive in the early 20 th Century, you should appoint ONE person in your group to be your ‘Researcher’. They may use technology to look up unfamiliar vocabulary, facts about the times, places, or any ‘real’ people who may come up in the course of this activity.

 The obvious place to start was with Lazarus’s personal effects (which you claimed as his, um… ‘surviving kin’), but they tell you little. A picture of Beatrice, the girl he’d lost in Texas - but he’d shown you this before. Minimal clothing, toiletries, and a tattered copy of an H.G. Wells novel, “The Invisible Man”.  Folded up in the back of the book, however, were some pages you hadn’t noticed before. They drop out onto your desk and you begin reading them one by one…

 Remove 7 (seven) documents at random from the envelope you’ve been given. Close the envelope and set it aside without looking at any of the remaining documents.

 With your group, examine the 7 (seven) available documents and begin discussing what they might reveal – if anything - about Lazarus Riverside.

 Using your small bit of savings, you travel to the states and track down Riverside’s last known address - an apartment where he stayed only briefly before joining the military. The landlady doesn’t know anything about his past, but she does have an old suitcase of his which he left behind.

 In the suitcase are a few changes of old clothes that don’t tell you much, but at the bottom are some strange scraps…

 Remove 7 (seven) more documents at random from the envelope. Close the envelope and set it aside without looking at any of the remaining documents.

 With your group, examine the new documents. Add or incorporate what they suggest to what you already think you might know about Lazarus Riverside.

 Each group should prepare at least three hypotheses about Lazarus or the events covered in the documents. You don’t have to be certain, but should have some evidence to support each hypothesis.  Each group should begin considering Y/N questions they wish they could ask an ‘omniscient narrator’ if they had the opportunity.

 I’ll ask each group to tell me one thing they believe they’ve put together regarding either Lazarus or Oklahoma Territory, and support it with available documents.  If I like your answer, the group will be able to remove ONE extra document in the next round AND ask me a Y/N question. If I know the answer, I might even share!

 Almost unnoticed in a crevice of the suitcase is what looks like a key to a post office box.

 The landlady points you to the nearest post office and sure enough, the number on the key matches that on one of the private boxes.

 Almost unnoticed in a crevice of the suitcase is what looks like a key to a post office box.  The landlady points you to the nearest post office and sure enough, the number on the key matches that on one of the private boxes.  You open the box to discover more jumbled and torn relics presumably saved and valued by Lazarus…

 Remove 7 (seven) more documents at random from the envelope. Close the envelope and set it aside without looking at any of the remaining documents. (You don’t get any more after this – this is it!)  With your group, examine the new documents. Add or incorporate what they suggest to what you already think you might know about Lazarus Riverside.

 You’ve uncovered all you can about Lazarus Riverside, and it seems woefully incomplete. Most of it seems to involve events before he was even born!

 Still, you may have enough to tell a story Lazarus would find meaningful, and this brings you some comfort. With your group, compose a 5 – 7 sentence synopsis (a summary / story) based on the documents you’ve uncovered and analyzed.

 You’ve uncovered all you can about Lazarus Riverside, and it seems woefully incomplete. Most of it seems to involve events before he was even born!  Still, you may have enough to tell a story Lazarus would find meaningful, and this brings you some comfort. With your group, compose a 5 – 7 sentence synopsis (a summary / story) based on the documents you’ve uncovered and analyzed.  Someone with legible writing should write this for the group, as I will be attempting to read them