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 2 · DO #479 · 204_Popenoe_Bx33FF49r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Fruits - English & Spanish manuscripts, typed and handwritten, notes, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #479, page 2
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 2 ↗

Page transcription

HOTEL AVILA
CARACAS
VENEZUELA

FIFTY YEARS WITH TROPICAL FRUITS

CARTER L. GARDNER
MANAGER

I have chosen this subject because I feel reasonably certain I can
have no competition from any one in this audience. If I am wrong, will
someone please raise his hand and I will stop. And of course, another
reason: Los viejos damos buenos consejos cuando ya no podemos dar malos
ejemplos. And if I talk too long, I urge you to follow the example of the
man who was in church, when the preacher had chosen as the subject of his
sermon, the four Prophets, Obadiah, Nehemiah, Hezekiah and Habbakuk.
After covering the first three in an hour and 20 minutes, he came to Habbakuk.
"What place shall we give to Habbakuk?" And a man in one of the back rows
got up and said as he walked out, "He can have my place."

And I prefer to talk off the cuff, as I believe you call it in the
States. I like to be informal, to have discussions though the presentation
of formal papers is undoubtedly of more lasting value. And perhaps I should
present a formal paper; I remember so well when we got to Italy a few
years ago, after having travelled through several countries in Europe,
and my wife (I am sorry she could not be with us today) remarked with
feeling, "Thank goodness we have at least reached a country where you
can't talk".

So now let's get down to business. I have offered to talk about
where I think we were fifty years ago; where we have come since then; and
where are we going?

As regards tropical fruit culture, I believe this brings us right
up against the subject of Vegetative Propagation. Everyone knows we don't
get very far in fruit culture without this great asset. As far as I have
been able to learn, the aboriginal Americans did not know the art of
grafting. And if anyone knows I am wrong about this, let him speak up
now, or hereafter hold his peace, as they tell you when you are about to
get married. They did know the art of grafting, not with the refinements
you have today, but it is generally agreed that the East Indians were grafting
mangos by the method known as inarching, perhaps several thousand years
ago. I am not clear as to when grafting was first known in Europe.