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:

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 85 · DO #4744 · 231_Rogers_Bx4FF35_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Museum Grant Proposal, 1969
Digital Object
DO #4744, page 85
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 85 ↗

Page transcription

British Museum (Natural History), London, England
Botanical Museum, University of Helsinki, Finland
University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Kuopio Museum, Kuopio, Finland
University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Université de Rennes, Rennes, France
Botanisches Garten und Museum, Berlin-Dahlem
Botanische Staatssammlung, München, West Germany
University College, Galway, Ireland
University of Tel-Aviv, Israel
Hattori Botanical Laboratory, Nichinan, Japan
National Science Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Instituto de Biología, Mexico City, Mexico
Rijksherbarium, Leiden, Netherlands
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Botanical Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
University of Krakow, Krakow, Poland
Universidad de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland
Institute for Systematic Botany, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden
Botanical Museum, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden
Institute for Systematic Botany, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
Conservatoire et Jardin Botanique, Geneva, Switzerland
Botanical Institute, Akad. Nauk Kazakhstan SSR, Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, U.S.S.R.
Komarov Botanical Institute, Leningrad, U.S.S.R.
Botanic Garden, University of Moscow, Moscow, U.S.S.R.
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, Wales

The Herbarium also helps foreign botanists in several other ways: it pays the annual dues to the American Bryological Society for a Czech botanist and receives in exchange collections of bryophytes not otherwise available. The Herbarium also sends bryological books to a scholar in Kazakhstan and receives in return difficult-to-obtain literature from the local Akademia Nauk.

In addition to exchange of specimens each Museum Section has an exchange program for reprints. By distributing copies of Museum faculty publications to interested colleagues and institutions abroad, the Museum receives in exchange publications of foreign scientists which would be too expensive to acquire through purchase. The reprint collections are basic research tools for faculty, students, and other scholars who use Museum collections.

Information on techniques of making facsimile reproductions of artifacts, coins, and fossils has been distributed to institutions abroad upon request as have photographs and other information on specific exhibits on display in the Museum.