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 101 · DO #4531 · 116_Van%20Schaack_Bx6FF19_r

Collection
George B. Van Schaack (1903–1983) papers
Item/Folder
Miscellaneous (1 of 2), 1945–1981
Digital Object
DO #4531, page 101
Collection-level dates
1918–1981
Open PDF at page 101 ↗

Page transcription

dieser Herbarius durch Hannsen schönsperger in der Keyslerlichen statt zu
Augspurg an des mittwochen nach dem weyssen suntag. Anno Mccc und in dem
lxxxvii jare.

We have already spoken several times of the Hortus Sanitatis. This was
an ambitious work of one Jacob Medenbach, who produced it in 1491 as a sort of
compendium of his knowledge of all three kingdoms, vegetable, animal and
mineral, in that order. Despite its title it is only very partially a trans-
lation of the Gart der Gesundheit, although many of its great wealth of figures
derive therefrom. It is a fascinating picture book, full of all kinds of curious
lore. We must pass rather quickly over it. ( ) Here is the title page
of the 1511 edition and a page of text. ( ) This copy, in the Missouri
Botanical Garden library, is very interesting for it contains a considerable
amount of manuscript replacement. The page before us has had all but the upper
right hand corner replaced and filled in by hand. This was commonly done in
the 15th and early 16th centuries when, the printing completed, several pages
were lacking or imperfect. What was already printed was so valuable it was
worth filling in by hand to make a complete copy, and many of the scribes did
an excellent job. This one is not grade A, but it is well done. The illus-
trations ( ) show the old leaning toward stylization and symmetry and the
trick of using the same figure for more than one plant. This one illustrates
myrrh ( ) and a little later manna ( ). This charming figure ( )
occurs over and over illustrating this and that in all three kingdoms!

Here ( ) are two pages from the part of the book labelled 'De
Piscibus' (Of fishes); the coverage is rather broader than our conception of
fish. In the next slide ( ) the figure in the upper right is the sea hog,
highly fanciful. The part of the book dealing with minerals (De lapidibus)
dealt with many things. This gentleman here illustrates mummies; in other places
he represents limestone, coal, etc. The first edition of 1491 was somewhat more
beautifully set out. Here ( ) are two pages with their rubricated