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 17 · DO #4201 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx2FF39_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Schroeder–Sisler, 1933–1957
Digital Object
DO #4201, page 17
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 17 ↗

Page transcription

2079 Life Sciences Bldg.
University of California
Berkeley, California
November 9, 1956

Dr. Russell J. Seibert
Director, Longwood Gardens
Wilmington, Delaware

Dear Dr. Seibert:

Under separate cover I am sending you a reprint descriptive of the routes and products of the five expeditions I directed for this Botanical Garden in South America. The accompanying observations on the phytogeography of Peru may be of some special interest to you.

I am planning a sixth South American expedition for 1957-58 and hope to spend six to eight months (Sept.-Oct. to Feb.-March) principally in Peru and Chile.

While my principal objective will be obtaining evidence in areas critical, on the basis of past experience, for solution of major problems of Andean plant distribution, I intend to give emphasis to securing seeds or other propagative material of new or little known ornamentals. Our herbarium specimens and field notes point to many localities in subtropical and tropical Peru where showy ornamental species occur. Certain of these will be revisited to secure living material. In addition, we will work down the Rio Inambari and up the Madre de Dios by launch to establish headquarters as near its source as possible for extended collecting in botanically unknown portions of the montaña. I am confident that we will send out many new and desirable ferns, fuchsias, Ericaceae, orchids and other valuable epiphytes as well as a variety of other types of ornamentals.

In Chile our superficial examination of Nahuelbuta, an isolated Araucaria forest in the coastal mountains south of Concepcion, indicated a wealth of new ornamentals especially Calceolaria and Liliaceous and Amaryllidaceous climbers. Further south the unique subantarctic relic vegetation of the Cordillera Pelada contains many dwarf types of ornamental trees and shrubs not in cultivation. In other areas in Peru and Chile where we will collect there are desirable ornamentals.

I expect to take at least two North American assistants with me and hire local collecting assistance. At least one especially equipped truck will be essential and I will take such transportation from here. Use of an aeroplane to bring out living material will be necessary.

Pledges of financial support for the expedition have been made by friends, contingent upon my securing the balance of my budget. Is it possible that your institution might be interested in making a substantial contribution toward the realization of my project? All donations are received by this University and expanded through administrative offices upon my requisition.