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 30 · DO #4921 · 231_Rogers_Bx9FF3_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Manihot - Correspondence, 1961
Digital Object
DO #4921, page 30
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 30 ↗

Page transcription

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF TEXAS
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS

Department of
RANGE AND FORESTRY

July 24, 1961

Dr. David J. Rogers
Durator of Economic Botany
The New York Botanical Garden
New York 58, New York

Dear Dave:

Your note of July 18 was on my desk when I returned from a week
of collecting in western Texas. I have no idea how the "Missouri
Botanical Garden" became substituted for New York Botanical Garden -
in fact I did not realize that you had done your work at the former
institution. I did get the letter out in a hurry just before starting
on my trip and very well could have made a mistatement. I do regret
the error and am now trying to figure out whether or not I would
still more confuse Sarmento by sending him a note of correction. I'll
work something out.

We picked up an interesting Bouteloua in western Texas on our trip
last week. From the few herbarium specimens we had seen and the general
nature of the plant I had assumed that this would be the fourth in a
series of diploids in the Bouteloua curtipendula complex. BUT examination
of pollen meiosis divisions show the type specimen plant to have 2n=25.
This is five chromosomes over the diploid count and is different from
any situation that I have yet encountered in the B. cu. complex studies.
I do have a B. filliformis strain from Mexico with a 2n=21 chromosome
number. Although we are learning much about the B. cu. complex it does
almost seem that the problems develop about as fast as they are termi-
nated. Next month I shall spend a couple of weeks in Mexico looking for
Bouteloas in southwestern Mexico and certainly have reason to expect
some interesting collections.

Keep me informed of any more developments in respect to Sarmento.

Sincerely yours,
Frank W. Gould
Curator of Tracy Herbarium

FWG/jc