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 100 · DO #4679 · 231_Rogers_Bx3FF2_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Scientific Reviews, 1971–1972
Digital Object
DO #4679, page 100
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 100 ↗

Page transcription

-14-

The use of specimens collected in 'field museums' [see Schedule of Research] will permit experiments on classification, naming, and principles of identification to be carried out with large numbers of Aguaruna informants. The use of these field museums will thus allow for the establishment of conditions similar to those of the psychological laboratory and at least some of the advantages relating to conduct of controlled experimentation can be gained.

Concomitant with the collection of information on classification will be the initiation of a data archive on native treatment and utilization of the flora and fauna, collected both from verbal records in the native language as well as by traditional means of observation in the field situation. A thorough dietary study is planned for the second field session where daily schedules relating to Aguaruna diet will be obtained following procedures outlined by the Interdepartmental Committee for Nutrition in National Development in the ICNND's Manual on Nutrition Surveys (1963).

Information will be collected on such basic topics as food preparation techniques, food habits, nutrient intake levels and sources of nutrients. Dietary information of this sort is scarce for South American Tropical societies and there are no studies which encompass the time span envisioned by the proposed research program. While we are under no false illusions as to the difficulty of collecting reliable nutritional data among primitive peoples, there can be no doubt that information on this topic will be of special importance to studies concerned with illuminating primitive man's adaptation to various climates (cf. Lee 1969, Baker 1964, Mazess & Baker 1964, Winton [1968]).

The complete horticultural cycle will be observed and described and permanent photographic records are planned for this area of human activity (Conklin 1961). Questions relating to such matters as stages of succession (from first cleared field to take-over by dominant forest), methods of plot selection, native principles of soil classification (as they correspond to scientific standards, see Facilities), and so on will be collected (cf. Carneiro 1964).

Insofar as possible, efforts will be made to collect information on native medicine as it relates to folk biology. The importance of such information for the development of modern medicine is obvious inasmuch as aboriginal pharmacological knowledge of plants in the American Tropics has contributed greatly to the development of