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 77 · DO #4198 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx2FF36_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Rock, Dr. Joseph F., 1931–1957
Digital Object
DO #4198, page 77
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 77 ↗

Page transcription

August 17, 1932

Dr. Joseph F. Rock,
Likiang, Yunnan Province, China.

Dear Dr. Rock:

I am very much disturbed that no word has come from you since your letters of last April. I know, of course, that you have been in the field, but I have been expecting for some weeks to hear something from you. I certainly trust that all goes well. I feel, however, that before sending you money, I should await a letter from you.

First of all, you will wish to know about the success of the campaign for funds. I may say that we have now in hand a total of $5000, which means that you personally will be repaid for the expense of the expedition. I am now endeavoring to secure additional funds to cover the cost of transportation and distribution from this end. I hope this information will relieve your mind. I can assure you that it is a tremendous relief to me to have been able to get this money together. I do not believe that you can realize what a struggle it has been and how many hundreds of letters I have had to write and how many personal interviews I have had to arrange in order to get together the entire sum.

In an earlier letter I told you how important it is, from our point of view, that all the botanical products of the expedition come solely to this University. I hope that you received these letters and that you understand clearly the situation involved. You may be sure that we shall make wide distribution to representative botanical institutions all over the world of the seed and herbarium specimens. I am also planning to send to the U.S.D.A. for distribution seed of all species which have any economic or non-ornamental value. I believe that you can understand thoroughly why the distribution initially must come only from us. I can give you one striking illustration of the situation. Mr. Lionel de Rothschild has made a generous contribution to the expedition fund in return for which he is to receive a share of all the seed which you collect. Suppose, now, that you sent for example a certain portion of all the Rhododendron seed you collect to the U.S.D.A. Mr. de Rothschild would then receive from the U.S.D.A. the distribution list of Rhododendrons, and would thus discover that he could have secured the seed free of charge. This is only one illustration, showing the sort of complication in which we should become involved if the products of the expedition go to various places.

I am enclosing a number of mailing tags, which are to be used solely for the sending of seeds. The permit number is the one issued to the University of California. Possibly you would prefer to send the seed without these tags. Your previous sendings of seed have come through without question. You may make your own decision in this matter.

Hoping very soon to have word from you, and with all good wishes for your continued health and the success of the expedition, I am

Yours faithfully,

T. H. Goodspeed
Professor of Botany and
Curator of the Botanical Gardens