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 84 · DO #4176 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF14_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Fahs–Fritz, 1948–1957
Digital Object
DO #4176, page 84
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 84 ↗

Page transcription

January 4, 1957

Dr. A. S. Foster
Chairman, Dept. of Botany

Dear Dr. Foster:

I am proposing to spend the period September 1, 1957 to March 30, 1958 in South America as Director of a 6th South American botanical expedition. My primary objective will be the accumulation of evidence -- via collections of herbarium material and living plants -- to evaluate and clarify certain phytogeographic problems of temperate South America. I hope to take with me North American botanists and collectors.

Following the close of the South American portion of the project I plan to spend the period April 1, 1958 to June 30, 1959 here in research on the products of the expedition, with the help of certain technical assistance.

To finance the entire research project I am requesting a grant from the National Science Foundation, in amount $20,355.

The assumption is made in the grant request that 600 square feet of space in LSB (equivalent to 2079) will be available July 1, 1957 to June 30, 1959 in which technical assistance as well as myself can be accommodated. The budget of the grant request includes an item sufficient to defray cost of any additional labor required in the Botanical Garden to care for living plant materials returned from South America. These materials will be of importance to my objective and should also serve to increase the value of the existing South American unit in the Botanical Garden. It is anticipated that at the close of the research period all herbarium materials (except certain cacti and succulents which will go to the Chicago Natural History Museum) will be deposited in our Herbarium. However, if the Department is not interested in the acquisition of the living material and herbarium specimens to be secured in South America I will endeavor to deposit them in other institutions.

I may say that through a Fellowship grant to me from the Guggenheim Foundation, a grant-in-aid from the Chicago Natural History Museum and donations by private individuals it will be possible to carry out a certain proportion of the project even if the requested grant from the National Science Foundation is not allowed.

I trust that I may have your approval of my grant request to the National Science Foundation.

Sincerely,

THG:T