Example: content page
This is a poor example of a content / thematic page. The scintillating paragraph you are reading takes the place of a didactic panel — here, you would introduce the "theme" of your page for the audience. Remember you will have further space to explain the artefacts below, so focus this text on setting up the narrative. You'll notice the formatting options within Omeka itself are somewhat limited; you can use CSS (or even paste in from Word, if you're willing to do a bit of tinkering) to open up the design options — typefaces, different text alignments, &c. If you are following the more structured approach of having a separate introduction page, as this exhibit does, I would suggest a 125-200 word limit for didactic panels like this. You don’t want too much text, or you risk people not reading it! This one’s 143 words.
Très Riches Heures — January
The captions for your artefacts provide a further opportunity to enrich your exhibit with didactic text. The paragraph above has already set the stage for the theme you're exploring on this page, so devote these captions to the artefact itself. Your audience wants to know — what am I seeing here? What significance does the artefact have? When was it created? By whom? What are its distinguishing features? How does it relate back to the theme of this section of the exhibit, and to the exhibit’s wider purpose? We suggest no more than 100 words for captions; this caption is 100 words.
Très Riches Heures — February
As I ought to have mentioned in the last caption, what we are looking at here are pages from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry — one of the most maximalist Books of Hours ever produced. This sequence of images depicts the typical activities — and celestial alignments — of the different months of the year in late medieval France. This one is for the month of February; looks rather like Ontario in mid-April. Remember a few years ago when we had a full-on ice storm in the second or third week of April? It's fine, I'm fine.
Très Riches Heures — March
More from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry — this is supposed to be March. Look at all that green! Definitely not Ontario, which is a great place to spend six months of winter every year. Much like winter in Ontario, the Très Riches Heures took quite a while to get right. Work began as early as the 1410s and the final embellishments weren’t completed until the 1480s. Seventy or more years! That’s a long time to be working on a single book. Multiple generations of craftspeople were involved in the project.
Très Riches Heures — April
And lo! We have made it as far as April! The month which, proverbially speaking, makes fools of us all. Chaucer’s shoures soote are not in evidence here; an air of carefree joie de vivre prevails amidst a conspicuous absence of precipitation. Just look at these people! Nobles all swanning around graciously in their flowing diaphonous gowns. They’re practically wearing short sleeves! In April! Incredible. Probably they are swilling wine as well. Lucky bastards. Last frost in this part of Ontario isn't until May.