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 14 · DO #4222 · 182_Goodspeed_Bx3FF62_r

Collection
Thomas Harper Goodspeed (1887–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Research Proposal: National Science Foundation; Biological and Medical Sciences Division, 1957
Digital Object
DO #4222, page 14
Collection-level dates
1923–1963
Open PDF at page 14 ↗

Page transcription

Project -- Evaluation and clarification of phytogeographic problems in temperate South America, 1957-59, T. H. Goodspeed

The following specific research projects are derived from long contact with the floras of temperate South America, their character and distribution (cf. p. 1). The particular areas involved in each case appear to be critical, in terms of geologic history, for evaluation of postulates concerning trans- and inter-Andean plant distribution and the origin and evolution of the vegetation they now exhibit.

I. Factors influencing trans- and inter-Andean plant distribution

Peru
(1) In 1942-43 some collections were made of the largely unknown vegetation on the altiplano of northwestern Dept. Puno from the Cordillera de Carabaya eastward toward the Rio Inambari. The evidence obtained points to relationships between species of that Peruvian altiplano and those of the better known altiplano of adjacent Bolivia. When more fully documented it will constitute critical evidence in support of the postulated role of high plateaus established prior to recent vertical uplift as ancient pathways of trans-Andean plant dispersal. To obtain such documentation intensive collecting will be carried on in Dept. Puno.

(2) Preliminary examination of the vegetation of the vast canyon of the Rio Marañon in Dept. Cajamarca some 200 miles below its source shows remarkably sharp zonation of its elements under the influence of altitude and exposure. This evidence will be verified and greatly extended by collections and vegetation mapping along the Marañon, beginning at its source in Dept. Huanuco, to produce a hitherto undocumented picture of the relation of environmental factors to the character and distribution of inter-Andean floras.

Chile
The botanically little known vegetation in the area of juncture of Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina in Prov. Tarapacá appears to provide specific evidence concerning limitation on plant distribution imposed by the establishment of the present day Andean crest. Verification of this postulate requires determination of the composition of the vegetation of the area and of the role of passes (particularly between Chile and Argentina) as recent avenues of trans-Andean plant migration.