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 3 · DO #402 · 204_Popenoe_Bx30aFF3r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Avocado manuscript - correspondence, 26 January 1970–4 March 1975
Digital Object
DO #402, page 3
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 3 ↗

Page transcription

Antigua, Guatemala 3 January 1971

Dear Doctor Coit:

Many thanks for the interesting article on kakis. I still keep on trying to push them here bit it is painstakingly slow work. As far as I know, propagation has never been done by any nurseryman in Guatemala, nor elsewhere in Central America. It takes the trees such a long time to come into bearing! And I have just heard that the German up at Coban, 4000 feet (a good elevation I think) who had a bearing orchard of about 50 trees, probably Hachiya, has grubbed them out. Last year I ate half a dozen fruits from his orchard and they were great. Incidentally, the young Guatemalan horticulturist who brought them to me said, I am going to tell you something. It takes these fruit an awfully long time to soften up for eating. You set the fruits, stem end up, in a cup, and pour a teaspoonful of vinegar in around the calyx, and they ripen almost overnight. I did, and I kept true fruits as a check. The fruits with the vinegar at the basal end ripening in two days, and were fine eating; the ones left to ripen normally took a week or more. Have you ever tried this?

My old Fuerte tree has been in full bloom for a month, but as yet I don't see any fruit set. Night temperatures in the upper 40s, day in the middle 70s. No rain at this time of year.

I am trying to push ahead with the avocado work, a bit, and wish I knew more about Bacon and Zutano, the two recommended varieties in California for marginal (cold) areas. We don't have either of these varieties here and we could do with something for 8000 to 8500 feet where the Guatemalans won't quite take the cold - some years. I hate to bother you, but what do you know of the background of these two varieties. I have seen Bacon once, at Santa Barbara, and got the impression