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 19 · DO #4538 · 116_Van%20Schaack_Bx7FF6_r

Collection
George B. Van Schaack (1903–1983) papers
Item/Folder
Correspondence N–Z (2 of 2), 1944–1973
Digital Object
DO #4538, page 19
Collection-level dates
1918–1981
Open PDF at page 19 ↗

Page transcription

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
WASHINGTON, D.C.

June 13, 1944.

Lieut. George B. Van Schaack
Ordnance Dept.
Navy 163 F. P. O.
San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Lieut. Van Schaack:

Some time ago your sister Eva Van Schaack inquired of me concerning literature on the botany of the Aleutians by which you could identify the plants you found there. The only published flora of the region would be of little use to you. However, I have been assigned the task of preparing a popular treatment of the flora of those islands for the use of the men there, the original idea being something to aid them in maintaining their moral during the inactive period of occupation. I believe this is about the thing that your sister wanted to get for you.

I am wondering if you would be willing to write me a letter telling me how much use you think there would be for such a booklet and whether it would be a material factor in achieving the objective which stimulated the project. I am not sure that the officials in charge will approve the type of thing I am working on. If they do not I hope to try other channels.

This is supposed to be one of the series of War Background Studies which the Smithsonian has been issuing. It will be different from the others in that it will have keys to the common plants, especially those in the flowering state, reduced to the level of those without botanical training. It will not permit of identification of much material without flowers and must of necessity be based on the very inadequate information that exists in literature on the flora of that region. I hope it may stimulate the men to learn of their environment and to collect specimens for identification and deposit in the cases of this institution. We are seriously handicapped in our work on that area because we do not have enough material from there. It seems to me this is a rare opportunity to make contacts with those who might aid in completing our files and records.

I am planning to send you a copy of my manuscript as soon as it is typed. I might add that besides the botany, this study will include treatments of the animal life including popular and useful keys to the birds, and discussions of the history and peoples and geology, etc.

Yours sincerely,

E. H. Walker
Assistant Curator