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 95 · DO #429 · 204_Popenoe_Bx31FF21r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
United Fruit Company, Jamaica Division -  correspondence, November 1939–February 1942
Digital Object
DO #429, page 95
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 95 ↗

Page transcription

COPY INFORMATION FOR THE PRESS - UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
FOR FEBRUARY 4 P.M. PAPERS: WASHINGTON, D.C.
FIRST RUBBER SURVEY PARTY RETURNS FROM SOUTH AMERICA

The Department of Agriculture announced today that the first of its rubber survey parties has returned from Latin America. The party was under the leadership of Dr. E. C. Stakman, Chief of the Division of Plant Pathology and Botany at the University of Minnesota and Agent of the Department. Others in the party were E. M. Blair, rubber technologist; N. M. Striker, soil specialist; and A. F. Skutch botanist.

Doctor Stakman and his party surveyed an area which covers roughly the headwaters of the Amazon tributaries east of the Andes in Peru and an area west of the Andes in Ecuador and Colombia. The group left the United States last August.

Doctor Stakman reports a cordial reception in all of the countries visited. The Peruvian Government supplied airplanes, motor cars, and even turned over to the party one of its river gunboats. In each country visited scientists of the local governments joined in the survey.

The purpose of the survey was to locate areas most suitable for commercial rubber growing and to make arrangements for nurseries where Hevea seedlings can be propagated on a large scale. These seedlings will be used as rootstocks on which to multiply the superior strains of Hevea already assembled by the Department from various sources throughout the world. The group also collected seeds from wild rubber trees growing in the area that might have potential value in those countries.

Four locations were selected for nurseries: two in Peru, one in Colombia, and one in Ecuador. These nurseries will become part of a chain extending throughout the tropical areas of Central and South America. All countries participating in the program will share the superior disease-resistant strains already developed.

Three other parties are still in Latin America. One is in Panama, one in Brazil, and the other in Mexico. Another party is in the Philippine Islands, collecting seed and budwood.

To date nurseries have been arranged for or planted in more than a dozen localities in Central and South America. Between three and four tons of seed has been planted in these nurseries.

After all of the survey parties have returned the next step will be to determine locations of at least two experimental stations. Here problems of breeding, culture and disease control will be investigated. This work will be under the direction of the Bureau of Plant Industry. The Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations is responsible for coordinating the Department's rubber research with work of other federal agencies.

The entire rubber investigation including the preliminary surveys is being conducted in cooperation with the Latin American Republics that have suitable soil and climate for growing rubber. Results of the work will be made available to all countries cooperating, and to large and small growers.

The rubber tree is a native of tropical America, and was once the source of rubber used in the United States. Since 1910, however, most of our supplies have been imported from the Eastern hemisphere.