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 200 · 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 200
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 200 ↗

Page transcription

COPY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SECOND BOTANICAL GARDEN EXPEDITION TO THE ANDES
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

DIRECTOR
T.H.GOODSPEED
PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AND DIRECTOR
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
September 16, 1940

Dr. Joseph F. Rock
University of Hawaii
Honolulu
Copies also sent directly to Yunnanfu
9/17/40 and 9/24/40

Dear Friend:

It has been a long time since I have had the pleasure of hearing from you. I have often wondered how you were and how to get into touch with you. Recently I have heard that you have been in Honolulu but have returned to China. This is rather disturbing news because in this country, perhaps erroneously, we get the impression that conditions anywhere near the border of French Indo-China are likely to be particularly disturbed for some time. I am forwarding this letter through the University of Hawaii in the hope that they will have the latest address to which to forward it.

I am writing in the hope that you will let me keep in touch with you a little more closely from now on, and to tell you that plants from the seeds which you collected for us in 1932 are now coming into flower and proving to be of great scientific and ornamental interest. As you will recollect, the great financial depression which reached its height just when the products of your expedition came back to us meant that there was no money from the University for growing the plants. Under the most adverse conditions I succeeded in securing a few private donations so that we were able to grow from your seed at least a few of the species which seemed to be most promising. Actually, other institutions in this country and abroad, to which we distributed the greater share of the numbers you collected, probably have a better representation of your plants than we have because of their better financial situation. Your herbarium specimens, from the time of their arrival, have attracted attention in this country and abroad, and only a few days ago one of our taxonomists referred to the "gorgeous collection in such wonderful condition which Dr. Rock sent to the University." You can imagine what a disappointment it has been to me that we were not able to make full use of all the seeds which you obtained, particularly because I spent the better part of six months in 1931 raising the money for the expedition, and had promised the donors that it would represent the finest collection of plants that had ever come to California. You carried out your part of this promise, but the University was unable at that moment to carry out its part.

I wonder how you are planning ultimately to dispose of you undoubtedly large and certainly immensely valuable collections of material dealing with the plant geography, etc., of the vast areas which you have explored. I recollect that when you were last in Berkeley you expressed the generous desire to turn over to this University a certain portion of this material. I know that your proposal was very acceptable indeed to the University authorities but I cannot remember whether the matter was ever carried beyond that point. The Herbarium, Botanical Garden and teaching and research staff of this University combine to