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 72 · 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 72
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 72 ↗

Page transcription

the Umbelliferae. His work became the standard reference for all future works until early modern times. His work was saved for the western world through the Byzantine and Arabian cultures.

Anicia Juliana (c. 500 A.D.) Princess of the Byzantines. Had an herbal compiled. Very much a retake of Dioscorides. This MS was brought into the west in 1562 at the instigation of Matthioli.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) 980-1037 A.D. Assembled in critical form all medical botany to date that was available to the widely disseminated Moslem culture.

Ibn Baithar (c.1200) The best of the Arabian botanists. Described 1400 plants and described only what he saw. Removed much superstition from the published material.

Constantine the African (c. 1050) A Dominican monk. Translated many Arabian works into Latin. The first great plagerist but he brought much of the Arabian knowledge into the hands of western scholars.

Albertus Magnus (Albert von Bollstadt) The Aristotle of the middle ages. Encyclopedist of plant knowledge. Was interested in botany rather than medicine. His descriptions are critical and useful. Speculated on the nature of tendrils, thorns, etc. Felt that trees, shrubs and herbs represented natural divisions. Separated the thallophytes from leafy forms. Recognized the difference between Monocots and Dicots and the distinction between herbacious and woody habit. A big churchman whose deviations from the dogma were not detected because of his high position and discretion in publication.

Frederick II of Hohenstaufen (1194-1250) King of Naples and Sicily, Holy Roman Emperor. Highly enlightened monarch. He founded the medical school at Palermo where dissections of the human body were permitted for the first time