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 45 · DO #4168 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF6_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Cambiaso–Cartwright, 1948–1958
Digital Object
DO #4168, page 45
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 45 ↗

Page transcription

Berkeley 4, California
August 20, 1951

Mr. Ward Canaday
Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.
Toledo 1, Ohio

Dear Mr. Canaday:

Thank you for your kind letter of August 10th. To continue my South American plant explorations I am asking for leave from this University beginning November 1st but I could undoubtedly get away some days earlier. Indeed, if there are good connections by air I might be able to reach St. Croix before November 1st. I would then plan to go on direct to South America.

You ask that I be more specific about what might be accomplished by the South American expedition I outlined. As in my five previous expeditions there, all privately financed, the primary objective would be the securing of scientific information concerning the composition and distribution of the floras of western South America. I can assure you that what I have learned in the past on that subject has had practical significance for both Americas and has made a distinct contribution to mutual understanding and goodwill between them. In addition I may say, in confidence, that some of my South American work has had a relation to improvement of hemispheric defense. As a result those persons who in the past aided me financially have had reason to feel a certain satisfaction in having been largely responsible for what I have been able to accomplish.

Beyond the primary objective it should be possible to obtain new or little known plants (trees, shrubs, vines, herbaceous perennials) of potential ornamental value for the ultimate creation of a unique inter-American garden of semitropical species which could become a permanent tourist attraction on St. Croix. It is possible that certain of the introductions might be so well adapted to St. Croix conditions and sufficiently valuable as cut flowers for export that they would represent a limited addition to the agricultural products of the island.

Concerning the possibilities of introductions of species of potentially large agricultural, industrial or medicinal importance I cannot be so specific. "New Crops for the New World" refers to semitropical American plants which are thought to have a future in the Caribbean. Further, there are references to Old World and Far Eastern species which by selection and breeding have in South America been adapted to a climate like that of St. Croix and therefore might have a future there. Both types of plants could be secured by the proposed expedition.

On the basis of long experience in plant introduction I know that there will be many disappointments and that no quick returns can be anticipated.