The Thatcher Prize for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Study
Holly L. Gruntner Ph.D. ’24. - 2024 Award Recipient
The Thatcher Prize was created in honor of the 21st Chancellor of William & Mary, Margaret, The Lady Thatcher. The award is presented annually to recognize an outstanding student in graduate or professional study. The winner is selected on the basis of scholarship, leadership, character and service. The recipient of the 2024 Thatcher Prize is Holly L. Gruntner.
Dr. Gruntner graduates with her doctoral degree in history from William & Mary. She received her bachelor of arts from the University of Minnesota, Morris. After working for three years at the Library of Congress, Dr. Gruntner completed her master’s degree in history at William & Mary in 2017 and held a 2022-23 prestigious dissertation fellowship at the Winterthur Museum. A nominator wrote that “Holly’s research is groundbreaking — literally.”
Dr. Gruntner’s dissertation, “From the Ground Up: Practical Gardens and Horticultural Knowledge in Early America, 1700-1830,” interrogates how Americans built practical knowledge in their kitchen gardens. One nominator writes, “Her study of vernacular botany and the production of scientific knowledge in the 18th century changes our understanding of how scientific knowledge was produced during the Enlightenment, and of who was producing it.”
Dr. Gruntner has earned a plethora of research fellowships and grants through top-tier research entities, such as the Library Company of Philadelphia, American Antiquarian Society, Huntington Library and Massachusetts Historical Society. She has represented her work at more than ten academic conferences or speaking engagements.
Nominators describe Dr. Gruntner as a “stalwart, calm leader.” She has brought compassion and understanding to her work as a teaching assistant and instructor. Dr. Gruntner served four years in student government as vice president and president of the History Graduate Student Association, and as a senate representative and then president of the Graduate Student Association. Nominators applaud her “integrity, diligence and commitment to serving her fellow students.”
In a nominator’s words, Holly Gruntner consistently resolves “to go above and beyond for everyone around her, especially the graduate community at William & Mary.”
