“Perhaps institutional structures contributed to the dominance of particular interpretations of Lincoln.”

What institutional structures?

Potentially:

universities;

history departments;

academic journals;

publishers;

funding organizations;

professional historical associations;

conference networks;

curriculum committees;

hiring and promotion systems;

citation networks.

How could they contribute?

Imagine:

Step 1

Universities teach Interpretation A frequently.

Step 2

Students become familiar with A.

Step 3

Some students become historians.

Step 4

They conduct further research within debates surrounding A.

Step 5

Journals publish many articles engaging with A.

Step 6

Those articles receive citations.

Step 7

A becomes increasingly visible and established.

This can create cumulative reinforcement.

But notice:

None of those steps proves that A is false.

It establishes a possible mechanism through which an interpretation becomes dominant.