"Can you tell the story of Lincoln’s presidency without" Topic

…chronology?

"As I've mentioned before, we're getting ready for a pretty big construction project here at the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum. After adding some new exhibit space, a kids' learning lab, a programming and a collection processing room, and making other structural improvements to the building, we'll move to the most exciting renovation phase: new exhibits on Lincoln's presidential years in our second and third galleries. Along with an overhaul of our Civil War displays, this will complete the transformation of our permanent galleries that we began last year, when we installed a new exhibit on Lincoln's life before the presidency.

The first step in creating a new exhibit is deciding how you want to organize the material. We knew from the outset that we'd start out with his nomination and end up at Ford's Theatre, but we didn't plan on a strictly chronological path between the two. Our early outlines took a more topical approach, with sections on emancipation, Lincoln as commander-in-chief, civil liberties under his administration, his family's private life in the White House, and so on…"
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Amicalement
Armand

…without chronology?

"As I've mentioned before, we're getting ready for a pretty big construction project here at the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum. After adding some new exhibit space, a kids' learning lab, a programming and a collection processing room, and making other structural improvements to the building, we'll move to the most exciting renovation phase: new exhibits on Lincoln's presidential years in our second and third galleries. Along with an overhaul of our Civil War displays, this will complete the transformation of our permanent galleries that we began last year, when we installed a new exhibit on Lincoln's life before the presidency.

The first step in creating a new exhibit is deciding how you want to organize the material. We knew from the outset that we'd start out with his nomination and end up at Ford's Theatre, but we didn't plan on a strictly chronological path between the two. Our early outlines took a more topical approach, with sections on emancipation, Lincoln as commander-in-chief, civil liberties under his administration, his family's private life in the White House, and so on…"
Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

I guess you could, but I think it'd be much better WITH chronology. For instance, there were reasons why he couldn't/didn't free the slaves immediately upon taking office. Telling the story chronologically would help explain that.

There's no way to do anything without some sort of chronological context. It should be possible to do modules on specific topics with internal chronologies within those modules, but it could tend to create a disjointed narrative.

A module addressing slavery would inevitably include the Emancipation Proclamation, but without an explanation of how important Antietam was to enabling it,…

A module addressing domestic northern politics, including the revocation of habeus corpus, and the 1864 Presidential Election vs. McClelland (who arrives w/o context), makes no sense unless you understand the importance of Atlanta's fall.

You could try to do modules focused on the narrative as Lincoln interacted with others. Lincoln, Seward, Bates, Chase and Cameron and the 1860 convention. Lincoln and Ellsworth and and the coming of the war. Lincoln and McClellan and the early years of the war in the east, and the 64 election. Lincoln and Grant and the coming of total war. Lincoln and the Supreme Court and the advent of War Powers. Lincoln and T. Stevens and the struggle against slavery. Lincoln and A. Stevens and the effort to end the war. Lincoln and Mary Todd and the agony of their years in the White House. Lincoln and A. Johnson and the tragedy for the south of JW Booth's catastrophic choice. There are probably others one might want.

Just thinking…

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand