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 32 · DO #4920 · 231_Rogers_Bx9FF2_r

Collection: David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder: Manihot - Correspondence, 1960
Digital Object: DO #4920, page 32
Collection-level dates: 1948–1977

Open PDF at page 32 ↗

Page transcription

April 26, 1960

Dr. Irving Goldman
Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, N.Y.

Dear Dr. Goldman:

Dr. Murra, of Vassar, recently wrote that you are interested in manioc studies. He may have told you something about my work and interests, but let me fill you in on one or two aspects of my work, and you can decide if they have any interest to you.

For some time, I have been trying to classify the varieties of the cultivated manioc, but my studies and field work have so far been concentrated on the peripheral areas of manioc cultivation--the West Indies and Central America. I have found it useless to deal with the cultivated plants alone, and have had to consider other "wild" species of the genus Manihot closely related to the cultivars of M. esculenta. Of course, any good classification should not only reflect the present relationships, but should also at least hypothesize on the origins of the cultivated plants.

This last aspect, of course, is one of great complications. Origins of purely wild plants is complex enough, but origins of cultivated plants is a problem not only of botanical nature, but as much an anthropological one. I will, therefore, have to lean heavily on anyone who can assist in this area, in which I have no formal training. It seems that there are a number of people in the New York area interested in South American peoples, and I assume that you know most of them.

I hope to go to South America next fall to collect materials for further study of the manioc problem. It would be helpful if, before I start out, I could ask your opinion on areas in South America which you consider fruitful for botanical-anthropological investigation, on methods of data collecting, etc. Under any conditions, it would be helpful to me, to be able to hear of your experiences in South America. I trust that at some date convenient to you, preferably in the summer, we may get together.

Sincerely yours,

David J. Rogers
Curator of Economic Botany