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 59 · DO #4184 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx1FF22_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Just–Kerr, 1941–1959
Digital Object
DO #4184, page 59
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 59 ↗

Page transcription

Berkeley, California
July 13, 1953

Mr. Charles Kendrick
Russ Building
San Francisco, California

My dear Charles:

For some time I have wanted to give you a report on the South American botanical expedition of November 1951 to April 1952 in the financial support of which you so generously shared.

The black line on the enclosed map shows the route of the expedition in Chile and Peru. Some 5000 miles were traversed by car and 1000 by other transportation and on foot. As shown, the coast of Chile was explored from the arid and torrid north, through the central ("Mediterranean") portion and into the forested, humid southern region. This was the first complete botanical exploration ever made of this 900 mile coastal strip, which is unique botanically primarily because of the variety of climates involved. In central Chile collections were also made in the Andes up to 12,000'. In Peru, plant exploration was limited to the coast north and south of Lima and to three stations just above the Chilean frontier.

The organization, investigation and distribution of the products of this expedition are now sufficiently complete so that I can make the following evaluation of what was accomplished (numbers approximate):

(1) 3000 dried plant specimens of 700 different plant species -- a permanent record of the character and distribution of the vegetation of the areas explored. The duplicate specimens are being sent to botanical research centers in this country and abroad.

(2) 1000 photographs (majority in natural color) important as supplementing the specimens (1) and for illustration of articles being published on the results of the expedition.

(3) seeds and living plants of new or rare species to be grown in botanical gardens and similar institutions to further research on a variety of theoretical and practical problems: 1000 packets of seed have been sent to 45 institutions and investigators; 400 living plants and 200 bulbs are being grown in the Botanical Garden (Berkeley). In addition, a large number of insects and a smaller number of shells were collected.

Outstanding botanically was the almost complete representation of the Cacti of Chile which was obtained. A number of new species were discovered and certain problems hitherto unsolved because of meagerness of previously available research material, are being resolved. Thus, an entirely new chapter in the botany of the West Coast of South America has been revealed and is attracting much attention. Mr. Paul C. Hutchison, Senior Botanical Garden Botanist, who accompanied me to South America is a specialist in Cacti and has published a number of articles on those he collected in Chile. He has