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 5 · DO #4652 · 231_Rogers_Bx2FF13B_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Rogers - Class Seminars, 1949–1951
Digital Object
DO #4652, page 5
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 5 ↗

Page transcription

BOTANY SEMINAR
The Herbalists: Shades of the past, shadows of the future.

Iconographers
Incunabula: Latin Herbarius, 1484.
German Herbarius, 1485.
Ortus Sanitatis, 1491.
These were among the earliest printed books on plants, crudely illustrated and believed to be based on manuscripts originally done by the Greeks and Romans.
Otto Brunfels, Herbarium Vivae Icones, 1530. The first publication of life-like engravings of plants; with descriptions extracted from the ancients.
Leonhard Fuchs, Historia Stirpium, 1542. Contains over 500 engravings and the first botanical vocabulary.
Martius de la Cruz, Juanas Badianus, Aztec Herbal, 1552. A manuscript done for medical purposes with plants grouped under diseases which they are reported to cure.

Phytographers
Hieronymus Tragus (Jerome Bock), New Krauterbuch, 1530. The first descriptions of plants independent of the ancients.
Valerius Cordus, Opera Botanicae Conradi Gesneri, 1751. Emphasizes plant descriptions rather than illustrations; includes several new genera. Published posthumously.
Mathias de l'Obel, Stiratum Adversaria Nova, 1570. Presents a system of classification based on leaf form, roughly separating monocots from dicots.
Andrea Cesalpino, De Plantis, 1581. One of the first to propose relationships of plants based on fruits, seeds, superior or inferior position of the ovary.
Gaspard Bauhin, Pinax Theatri Botanici, 1623. A systematic synonymy of over 6000 previously known species.
John Gerard, Herball, 1636. A popular treatise of its day however most wholly compiled from the works of others and including considerable ludicrous and erroneous information.
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, Institutions Rei Herbariae, 1700. Presents a classification of groups higher than genera based to a large extent on the condition of the corolla.
John Ray, Historia Plantarum, 1704. Proposes a classification followed in part by the proponents of the natural system De Jussieu and De Cendolle.

Bibliography
Arber, Agnes, 1938. Herbals, Their Origin and Evolution. A very readable account of the herbalists and herbals from 1470 to 1670. Special reference is made to the artists and illustrations of the herbals and many woodcuts are illustrated.
Greene, Edward Lee, 1909. Landmarks of Botanical History. Smiths. Fisc. Coll. No. 1870. A scholarly study of the development of botany from Theochratus to Cordus, from their original writings, giving a detailed account of the accomplishments of each.
Miall, L. C., 1912. The Early Naturalists. A review of naturalists from Brunfels to Buffon including interesting notes on their lives and writings.
Reed, Howard S., 1942. A Short History of the Plant Sciences. An abbreviated account of botanical history from the Stone Age to the early 19th century; with references for each chapter.
A.F.T., 1950