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 131 · DO #4208 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx2FF46_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Vervoorst–Walle, 1949–1959
Digital Object
DO #4208, page 131
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 131 ↗

Page transcription

Berkeley, California
July 20, 1953

Dr. Nicolas van der Walle
Consulado de Holland
Casilla 3064
Lima, Peru

Dear Nicolas:

Yours of the 13th arrived a few days ago and very welcome it was. A day or two ago the pamphlet on decorations on wooden utensils also was received. I am exceedingly interested in these paintings which show a large number of plants. What a fertile field of research the ethnobotany of Peru would be!

Your problems at the chacra sound so characteristic of Peru and South America in general. The sexual instincts of the Latins are so highly developed that the law should recognize the situation and establish an institution in which the children produced would be brought up without penalty so far as the parents are concerned! In this country the lawyers for the man would probably dig up evidence indicating that the woman had other lovers, at least throw some doubts upon the question of whether the man was responsible.

It certainly has been a source of great aggravation to you. Probably you are wise to consider restricting your own activities to a flower garden and let a renter worry about crops on the rest of your land. The possible electrification of the region would surely increase property values.

In the same mail with your letter comes one from our mutual friend, Felix Wojtkowski, like a voice from the tomb! He says that from 1951 to date he has been collecting, mainly insects but also plants, in the Dept. Cuzco and especially in the valley of the Callanga river near Paucartambo. The plant collecting was done for La Molina; he received a salary and expenses. At the moment he appears to be regularly employed at La Molina at a salary of 900 soles a month and says that he can continue indefinitely. Elsewhere in the letter he claims that his salary equals only $56.00 US -- is it possible that the sole has decreased so much in value?

F. is apparently assisting Ferreyra and says that the latter has asked his (Felix') advice about approaching me for money for collecting expeditions. The peculiar thing is that a considerable time ago I wrote Fe Ferreyra offering to finance, in a small way, a botanical expedition to the montana during which he could get me a few orchids while he was making his own collections -- i.e., orchids in exchange for financially assisting a general collecting expedition. I have had no reply to my letter.