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 31 · DO #4183 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF21_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Jessup–Junge, 1939–1959
Digital Object
DO #4183, page 31
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 31 ↗

Page transcription

THE ARNOLD ARBORETUM
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
JAMAICA PLAIN, MASS., U.S.A.
Sept 26, 1939

Dear Mr. Morrison,
I have just received your two letters of the 19th and 22nd. The case of specimens has not arrived as yet. They will soon, however, and my winters work will begin. Please don't rush the rest of the collection, that part which is on the way will keep me busy for some time. Don't bother about my suggestions of July 10th concerning the divisions of this Paruvian and Bolivian material, unless you have plenty of time for it. The only reasons for doing so is that I can go through the collections from the Loma and the Altiplano rapidly, and get them out of the way fairly promptly. The headaches and the hard part of the whole collection will be that from the Yungas and Montanas of Bolivia and adj. Peru and that from the high country of central Peru. I will be slow on these two last lots, you can plan on that! I would like them last, after I have the great mass of the collection out of the way.

Dr. Goodspeed wrote that you had a large number of habitat photographs that go with your collections. He seemed to feel that the average quality was not high and so wondered if they would add to the collection if they were associated with the plants in the herbarium. I hope you will convince him that any reasonably clear photographs of plants should be placed in the herbarium with the specimen to which they refer. If the prints are small, do mount them on the sheet with the specimen and label. They are a wonderful addition to the specimen. If you do this desirable thing, plan to have a print made for us. I know I can get funds to pay for the prints sent here. If the print shows the habit and habitat of the plant it is adequate for the purpose mentioned. Remember they are for a herbarium-botanist and not for an art-exhibit. It is botanical utility and not photographic excellence which should decide whether they should be used or not. Dr. Goodspeed made some grand photos of the fresh flowers of Calceolaria (at Berkeley). Please try to continue the photographing of fresh flowers in the cultures at Berkeley. Particularly Calceolaria, and the bulbous monocots. I am a hundred percent for all possible photographs.

You ask regarding that so-called Streptanthus from Mollendo. I collected it at Mollendo in 1925 and will send the sheet along if you wish to see it. Shulz made a monotypic genus for it in the new Pflanzenfamiliäen (something like Englerocharis, as I recall; I am at home now and so can't check this). If I can help you in any way let me know. If you are working on any group let me know and I will have the material at the Gray Herb. sent you on loan.

You will understand that I have plenty of plant to name. I will name all if you have time to wait for me to do so. As I told Prof. Goodspeed I am willing to name all, or any part of the collection, just as your convenience and dictates of policy determine. Anything is OK with me. Prof. Goodspeed wants a statement from me regarding "the small group of numbers" made on the "coasts of Central America and Ecuador". These can be sent to Killip or Standley, though coastal collections are usually readily determined and I can name them quickly once I get to them. It seems to me that the collection merits no special attention. As a gesture, however, I may feel it desirable to send them off, and if so (in this case and any other) by all means do so. You will understand that I would like a complete set of duplicates of these wonderful collection you all have made. Whether these are determined by me or by others is of no importance. Hence if you do send specimens to men away from Harvard, that you will arrange it so that we can get a duplicate also. Dr. Merrill has agreed to purchase any such specimens, if they are available.

As with the First Expedition, all duplicates sent me go into the collections at the Gray Herbarium. I work at the Gray Herbarium and the specimens are added to that herbarium. Packages and letters can be sent to me there. In many ways that would be the most convenient address for me.