The death of a chief executive—sudden or expected, while still in office or decades later—is always a moment of national reckoning and reflection.

Different generations and communities of Americans have eulogized and remembered U.S. presidents since George Washington's death in 1799. What do our collective outpourings of grief tell us about the relationship between "we the people" and the American presidency? What kinds of societal fissures do presidential deaths reveal at critical points in the nation’s history, right up to the present moment?

Watch this discussion with Lindsay Chervinsky, Matthew Costello, and Andrew M. Davenport, moderated by Marc Selverstone from March 2023.

Also, see this May 2023 discussion at the National Archives when Chervinsky, Costello, and Davenport were joined by David Woolner and Kate C. LeMay.