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 11 · DO #4533 · 116_Van%20Schaack_Bx7FF1_r

Collection
George B. Van Schaack (1903–1983) papers
Item/Folder
Correspondence — Miscellaneous & A–K (1 of 2), 1963–1972
Digital Object
DO #4533, page 11
Collection-level dates
1918–1981
Open PDF at page 11 ↗

Page transcription

Turun Yliopiston
Kasvitieteellinen laitos
Turku
University of Turku
Department of Botany
Turku, Finland

November 19, 1963

Dr. George B. Van Schaack
Missouri Botanical Garden
2315 Tower Grove Ave.
St. Louis 10
Missouri
U. S. A.

Dear George,

So many years have passed since we have heard from each other that I really do not know how to start the letter. As you probably know and have known already earlier, I am back in Finland again. Back in my old university as a curator of the herbarium and the botanical garden. These two jobs have kept me quite busy, but nevertheless I am trying to do some research at the same time though it has not been very much as yet.

I have for some time been interested in Conioselinum and have tried to bring experimental taxonomy as a possible tool to solve at least some of the problems of this genus. I have already a nice but small collection of live plants in our botanical garden. However, it is not easy to get seeds of them or live plants from different parts of its distribution area. One of the reasons might be that the frits and seeds mature so late in the season that most botanists have finished with their field work when it would be best time for seed collecting. On the basis of the material that I have now I can say that polyploidy and possible hybridization are at least partially responsible for the problems in that genus.

At the same time with the cytology I have done some more detailed studies of herbarium material, though I have not wanted to borrow too much material yet until I have a little better knowledge of the background of the variation. As I remember you spent some time in Attu Island. And also did collect Conioselinum among other plants. As I have not seen any of the Aleutian material I would be very grateful to have your specimens as a loan for a short time if you would let me have it. Also other specimens of Conioselinum in the MBG herbarium, if it is possible to get it for a loan.

Hulten in his Flora of the Aleutian Islands refers to your paper (Ligusticum Gmelini Cham. & Schlecht. - Van Schaack, Pl. Isl. X (1945) p. 21.) If you have any copies of that paper available I would be most grateful to borrow it, as I have not been able to run it down in any of our libraries.

Just yesterday I had a letter from a friend of mine in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Among the news that he wrote he also mentioned that Woodson died recently. It came to me as a shock, since I had not heard about him having been ill. Was it something quite sudden?

I realize that it is entirely my own fault not having heard anything from or about MBG for a long time. If you have time, please, do let me have some news about the good old place and the people there. How are the Andersons? How many other "oldtimers" are there? My very best regards to all of the people that still might remember me. And my very best regards to you.

as ever
Reino