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.

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Page 20 · DO #4751 · 231_Rogers_Bx5FF1_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Amer. Museum-MANIOC Symposium, 1971
Digital Object
DO #4751, page 20
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 20 ↗

Page transcription

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY · DAVIS · IRVINE · LOS ANGELES · RIVERSIDE · SAN DIEGO · SAN FRANCISCO
SANTA BARBARA · SANTA CRUZ

LANGUAGE-BEHAVIOR RESEARCH LABORATORY
2224 PIEDMONT AVENUE
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94720

December 8, 1971

Professor David Rogers
Food Research Institute
Stanford University
Stanford, California

Dear Professor Rogers:

Over the last several years, I have been engaged in studying
the folk botany of a group of Mayan Indians in Chiapas, Mexico. We corresponded
briefly about this work in the mid-60s and I think you are acquainted with
my botanical collaborators on the projects, Drs. Peter H. Raven and Dennis
E. Breedlove. Recently, I have moved my ethnographic field area to Amazonian
Peru (or hope to do so if funds are forthcoming) where I intend to initiate
long-term study of the folk botany of a group of primitive horticulturalists
in the Upper Marañón River Valley. I enclose a brief sketch of the proposed
research for your information.

Given the central importance of manioc to this group, I hope to
spend a good deal of time in the description of its cultivation. I am anxious
that I collect the kinds of data that will also be of use to specialists such as
yourself, hence the present letter. I am aware of some of the problems surrounding
the collection of determinable specimens of Manihot esculenta from our experiences
in Chiapas. Since manioc is of supreme cultural importance, I am more than willing
to take as much time as needed in procuring the kinds of information that you would
feel necessary for adequate treatment.

By way of information, the group I hope to work with, the Aguaruna
Jívaro, have as many as twenty-five distinct named varieties, but I am fairly certain
that the number is higher. Each of these is recognizable on the basis of gross
morphological characteristics, the discovery of which is, of course, a major goal.

Since we are relatively close geographically, I would hope to have
the opportunity to visit with you personally, should you find the project of interest.
I am free most afternoons and could easily drop down to Palo Alto at your convenience.

Cordially yours,

Brent Berlin
Associate Professor of
Anthropology

Enclosure: Cognitive Aspects of Aguaruna Jívaro Botanical Ethnography