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 45 · DO #4680 · 231_Rogers_Bx3FF3_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Scientific Reviews, 1973 and 1975
Digital Object
DO #4680, page 45
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 45 ↗

Page transcription

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The materials for the proposed research are the living representatives of the present flora in the Cape District of the Peninsula of Baja California plus the herbarium specimens that have previously been collected from the area. Together with these specimens is Brandegee's copy of his published list (Brandegee, 1891) annotated in his own hand. The majority of the specimens from the Cape are housed in the three major herbaria in the San Francisco Bay area. In addition, in order to complete the taxonomic work it will be necessary to obtain loans of herbarium specimens and photographs of type specimens from various other herbaria and to obtain additional specimens and data in regard to the current flora.

During the field work in so far as is possible, four sets of specimens will be collected. One set will be deposited in the Instituto Forestales and one at the Jardin Botanico in Mexico City as the PI's collection permit stipulates. One set will be deposited at the U.S. National Museum and one at Berkeley, for it is the latter institution where the bulk of Brandegee's collections are housed including many of his type specimens.

From Brandegee's publications and annotations and from other sources, tabulations will be made of the degrees of abundance and these tabulations will be compared with the situation currently. Five categories of degrees of abundance as noted by Brandegee will be employed: (1) very common; (2) moderately common; (3) rare; (4) collected but without any notes as to abundance; (5) not collected during Brandegee's time. For example, on page 110 of Brandegee (1891) under Clematis, sp., the published account states: "Common in the hedges of irrigated fields and damp localities, between Miraflores and Triunfo". An example of Brandegee's annotations in his own hand is on page 124 referring to Rhus laurina Nutt., "Saw plenty in March". Approximately 20 percent of the species in Brandegee's publications seem to include notes on relative amounts observed.