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 55 · DO #4175 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF13_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Emsweller–Eyerdam, 1948–1957
Digital Object
DO #4175, page 55
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 55 ↗

Page transcription

June 28, 1949

Mr. Walter Eyerdam
7531 19th Ave. N.E.
Seattle 5, Washington

Dear Walter:

I am sorry that your letter of April 15 has so long remained unanswered.

Your account of your recent year's collection sounds as though you certainly have kept up your enthusiasm for acquiring plants. I hope that you keep in touch with this Herbarium so far as exchanges are concerned because I am sure that they have material that would interest you. Of recent years our Herbarium has developed a good deal and has acquired a fine collection of duplicates for exchange.

I have finally brought to a close the formal South American collecting after nearly twenty years of it and five trips down there. The largest expedition was, of course, the one of 1938-39 of which you were a member, but West made large collections in 1935-36 and a good many were made in 1942-43. From 1944 to date many plants have come in from Peru. The last number on the collection book is over 35,000, although, of course, there are some gaps representing numbers that we never used. It has been a time consuming and expensive occupation and it had to come to an end some time. From my contacts in South America there will, from time to time, be more herbarium specimens, but they will be turned over directly to our Herbarium instead of being cared for, named, distributed, etc., from my office.

The above will indicate that I am no longer actively concerned in sending collectors to South America. If I were, I would first think about you because of your great capacity in getting about and accumulating material. As you know, the securing of funds for plant exploration is far more difficult than it was before the war, and I have exhausted most of the sources of support for such work.

Your letter refers to the possibility of your being in this region a short time after you wrote it, but I presume your plans changed since I did not see you. In the hope that this was only a deferred visit and with every good wish to you and to Mrs. Eyerdam,

Cordially yours,

THG:am