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 34 · DO #4184 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF22_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Just–Kerr, 1941–1959
Digital Object
DO #4184, page 34
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 34 ↗

Page transcription

THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
Bronx Park
NEW YORK 56, N.Y.

TELEPHONE LUDLOW 4-8500

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
JOSEPH R. SWAN
PRESIDENT
CHARLES B. HARDING

VICE-PRESIDENT
FREDERICK S. MOBELEY JR.

TREASURER
BERKELEY GAYNOR
DIRECTOR
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS

January 31, 1957

Dr. T. H. Goodspeed
Department of Botany
University of California
Berkeley h, California

Dear Dr. Goodspeed:

At this herbarium we have been interested for years in the outstanding collections of South American plants that you have been distributing. As you know, we are among the foremost American institutions in the study of South American floras, through our activities in Venezuela, the Guianas, adjacent Brazil, etc. This work has progressed consistently for the past dozen years to the point where three members of our staff spend essentially full time on these materials. We also got into the Ecuadorian flora during the War Years and have worked up and largely distributed the very extensive collections made by W. H. Camp and associates in that country. One of the best sets of these was sent to the University of California. Otherwise, we have not done much work in Andean South America since the time of H. H. Rusby, but we have rather good collections for the continent as a whole.

It came to my attention the other day that in a recent publication you indicated where your own splendid collections had been distributed, and I regret that we were able to obtain so few of them, for they would also be most welcome. I also noted, however, that you still have a considerable residue of undistributed material, perhaps a good part of it as yet undetermined. I should like to make a plea at this time that we be given a higher priority on your exchange list when this material is finally sent out. If we could be of any help in naming the Guttiferae or the Melastomaceae, we have staff members who would be glad to undertake the work. In fact, Dr. Bassett Maguire is now preparing manuscript on the Guttiferae for the Flora of Peru and is anxious to see any material he can of that family.

I think you and I both would like to see valuable scientific materials deposited in centers where they can be most effectively studied by the largest number, as they are only obtained with such effort.

Thank you so much for giving this request your consideration.

With best personal regards,

Cordially yours,
David D. Keck
Assistant Director & Head Curator

DDK:gg