Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
A Research Division of Carnegie Mellon University

Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

Search a large and growing portion of our online collections, including handwritten documents.
PROTOTYPE

This prototype uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, including a vision-language model (VLM) capable of reading handwritten documents as well as typed and printed text, to create searchable transcriptions of digitized materials in the Hunt Institute Archives. This makes it possible to search the textual contents of individual pages, including material that may not be described in the archival catalog.

Use Keyword search for specific words, names, dates, scientific names, or phrases. Try Semantic search (experimental) to describe a topic, question, or kind of material when you do not know the exact wording used in the documents.

About the AI-generated transcriptions

The transcriptions are generated automatically from page images and may contain errors, especially with difficult handwriting, unusual names, multiple languages, image-quality problems, or complex layouts. They are intended primarily as a discovery aid rather than authoritative transcriptions.

Each result provides the generated transcription and links to the original digitized material and associated archival description so that readings can be checked against the source. The transcription workflow uses AI models run locally by the Hunt Institute.

About Keyword and Semantic search

Keyword search is the default and matches the wording in the transcriptions. Results contain all your terms. Use quotes for an exact phrase. Substring matching is supported, so aceae can find plant-family names ending in -aceae.

Semantic search (experimental) is useful when you know what kind of material you are looking for but do not know the words used in the documents. It ranks transcribed passages by similarity of meaning, so relevant results may not contain the exact words in your query.

Semantic queries can be broad research topics, descriptions of activities or relationships, or natural-language questions. For example:

plant collecting and fieldwork in South America medicinal, culinary, or other traditional uses of plants chromosomes and plant classification early herbals and botanical illustrations botanical institutions exchanging plants, seeds, and specimens microscopy and photomicrography in botanical research How did botanists and gardeners introduce plants from one region to another? grafting, budding, and propagation of tropical fruit crops

Semantic search is not a chatbot: a question is used as a search query, and the system returns archival passages that appear conceptually related to it rather than generating an answer or summary. Short descriptions and ordinary research questions generally work better than lists of disconnected keywords. Quotation marks have no special meaning in Semantic mode. Cross-language matching may work in some cases, but it should not be treated as translation.

Keyword and Semantic search are complementary. Keyword search lets you require particular wording; Semantic search can surface differently worded passages about the same subject. Depending on the research question, trying both can reveal different useful material.

Open a result: use the prominent page-and-transcription link to see the metadata, PDF, and full transcription. Keyword-search terms are highlighted in the transcription.

Archives Collections Database (ArchivesSpace): the Collection, Item/Folder, and Digital Object links open the corresponding archival records. Collection-level dates describe the collection as a whole, not necessarily the specific item or page.

If a PDF does not load: on the detail page, use the Digital Object link, click “Go to file” in ArchivesSpace, and navigate to the page number shown here.

Current limitations
  • Automated transcriptions can contain missing or incorrect text or unintended repetition. Difficult handwriting, image quality, unusual layouts, and multiple languages can reduce accuracy. Always consult the original page image when an exact reading matters.
  • Semantic search remains experimental. Its rankings are an additional discovery aid, not a complete or definitive set of relevant results, and highly ranked pages can sometimes be only broadly related.
  • This is an active prototype. Search coverage, transcriptions, functionality, and the interface may continue to change as additional archival material is processed and the system is improved.

← Back to results

Page 65 · DO #3973 · 296_Lowy_Bx3FF40_r

Collection
Bernard Lowy (1916–1992) papers
Item/Folder
Research Grants 1960→, May 1960 – February 1973
Digital Object
DO #3973, page 65
Collection-level dates
1949–1990
Open PDF at page 65 ↗

Page transcription

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA 70803
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
BOTANY AND PLANT PATHOLOGY
October 13, 1964
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
PLANT PATHOLOGY

Dr. Max Goodrich
Council on Research
Boyd Hall

Dear Dr. Goodrich:

In my letter of Sept. 12, 1963, I briefly outlined my reasons for requesting the Council's support of my Guatemalan project and also stated that the results of my previous research in Mexico would probably be published before the end of the year. I was later informed that there would be a delay in publication of the journal (Boletin de La Sociedad Botanica de Mexico) and that my paper entitled "Estudio sobre algunos Tremellales de Mexico" would appear late in 1964. In the meantime, my Guatemalan study, also supported by the Council on Research, has been completed, and the results of this work are being reported in two papers now in press in American journals, as follows: A new genus of the Tulasnellaceae, Mycologia, 1964., and New species of Tremellales from Guatemala, Jour. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 1964., in which 8 new species are described. Reprints of these papers, when received, will be sent to the Council. I wish to sincerely thank the Council for its support of these projects.

My work on Costa Rican fungi in the summer of 1964 was also greatly assisted by the Council's grant. As I indicated in my 1963 letter, I was invited by the University of Costa Rica to collaborate in the writing of a mycological flora of that country. The summer of 1964 was therefore devoted to collecting in numerous localities throughout Costa Rica and examination of the specimens found is now under way.

For 1965, I have received an invitation from the Institute of Botany of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to continue my research on fungi. I hope to spend a sabbatical year (1965-66) there and my application for a Fulbright grant is now pending. Should these plans materialize, I anticipate the need for some additional funds for travel within Brazil, mainly in order to reach collecting areas on the Amazon and some of its tributaries. I therefore request that the sum of five hundred dollars ($500.) be granted by the Council on Research for this purpose.

Sincerely Yours,
B. Lowy
Professor of Botany