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 #4020 · 296_Lowy_Bx5FF6b_r

Collection
Bernard Lowy (1916–1992) papers
Item/Folder
Teófilo Herrera, Na-Bolom, Angelica Calderon; Gastón Guzman, Trudy Blom; Evangelina Pérez S. 1980→1990, September 1983 – November 1992
Digital Object
DO #4020, page 65
Collection-level dates
1949–1990
Open PDF at page 65 ↗

Page transcription

The following procedures will be used to accomplish these objectives.

A. Translation.
1. The complete text of the "Diccionario Ilustrado de Micologia" (Ulloa, 1991) will be translated into English and entered into a computer. After comparing the translation with the original Spanish text, it will be printed on a laser printer and prepared for publication.
2. Photographs and drawings that illustrate various terms will be prepared for inclusion in the text.

B. Taxonomic studies.
1. Ascomycetes and their conidial states will be collected on various hosts in tropical regions of Mexico.
2. Material collected in the field will be taken to the laboratory for study. Taxonomic data, such as sizes of ascomata, asci and ascospores, and conidia, along with other pertinent information, will be recorded. Attempts will be made to isolate the fungi in pure culture.
3. Photographs and drawings will be made of taxonomically important structures for each species collected. Semi-permanent slides will be made and retained for future reference.
4. When suitable material is collected, samples will be killed and fixed in appropriate solutions for embedding in paraffin and/or plastic for the preparation of microscope slides to better determine the internal morphology of the ascoma. Specimens to be embedded in paraffin will be fixed in formalin-propionic acid-alcohol, and also in acetic alcohol for cytological studies, if there is sufficient material. Additional specimens, if available, will be fixed in 2.5% buffered glutaraldehyde for plastic embedding and thick-sectioning for light microscopy. These procedures have been described in more detail elsewhere (Hanlin and Tortolero, 1988).
5. Representative samples of each species collected will be deposited in the Sección de Micología of the Herbario Nacional (MEXU), UNAM, and in the Julian H. Miller Mycological Herbarium (GAM) at the University of Georgia.

Miguel Ulloa (1991) has recently published a "Diccionario Ilustrado de Micologia" that contains definitions and etymologies for over 2,000 mycological terms. Included in the dictionary are 769 illustrations (611 photographs and 158 drawings) which aid the reader in interpreting many of the terms. This is the first mycological dictionary to combine photographs with drawings as a means of illustrating terms. A unique feature of this dictionary is the incorporation of the illustrations into the text adjacent to the terms they illustrate. Prof. Ulloa has invited me to translate the "Diccionario" into English and publish it as coauthor. This I am eager to do, as this will make the dictionary available not only to those whose native language is English, but also to many in other language areas who read English. I believe that the dictionary will be especially useful to students of mycology. The primary goal of the