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.

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Page 3 · DO #4179 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF17_r

Collection: Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder: Gregg–Guggenheim Foundation, 1946–1959
Digital Object: DO #4179, page 3
Collection-level dates: 1923–1963

Open PDF at page 3 ↗

Page transcription

June 12, 1946

Dr. C. C. Gregg, Director
Chicago Natural History Museum
Roosevelt Road and Field Drive
Chicago 5, Illinois

Dear Dr. Gregg:

Your letter concerning Dr. Jose Cuatrecasas reached me while I was deciding whether to accept an invitation from the Colombian government to spend the summer as their guest in Bogota, Cali and Medellin to lecture and give technical advice. Since if I decided to go, as I have, the details of any proposal you might care to make to Dr. Cuatrecasas could, if you desired, be discussed with him by me, I delayed an answer to your letter until my decision was made.

Before his forced departure from Spain during the Revolution Cuatrecasas was recognized as the leading Spanish botanist and one of the best of European ones. He was Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical Garden in Madrid.

During the early 1930s he made an extended botanical expedition to Colombia and when he became a refugee was invited to take up residence in Colombia by the Colombian government. Although still retaining his Spanish citizenship he has been appointed to well paid government posts in Colombian universities and scientific institutions.

He has accumulated an exceedingly valuable herbarium, quite unique in indicating the character and distribution of the Colombian floras and rich in new species most of which cannot be described until Cuatrecasas has the opportunity to work in an herbarium like yours which is noteworthy for its representation of the vegetation of tropical America.

Cuatrecasas wishes to find an institution (or group of institutions) in the United States which will support him and his family (wife and two children) and give him research facilities during the period necessary (two-three years?) to describe his material and complete his book on the phytogeography of Colombia and adjacent areas. Under such circumstances he will deposit his herbarium permanently in the United States. He hopes, of course, ultimately to be able to return to Spain.