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 114 · DO #4921 · 231_Rogers_Bx9FF3_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Manihot - Correspondence, 1961
Digital Object
DO #4921, page 114
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 114 ↗

Page transcription

c/o Roger Mori
Apartado 97
Pucallpa, Peru
January 1, 1961

Dr. David Rogers
Curator of Economic Botany
New York Botanical Gardens
Bronx, N.Y.

Dear Dave,

We have returned to Lima for a few days after finishing the first half of our ethnographic field work among the Amahuaca of the Peruvian Montaña. Shortly we will be going back into the interior to finish up our work, this time with a more isolated group of Amahuaca.

Our work so far has been most productive. In the little over three months that we stayed with a group of Amahuaca on an island in the upper Ucayali River we obtained a great deal more information than we expected to. Some of this information relates to manioc, and that's why we are writing to you. While on the island we learned about two plants both of which have certain resemblances to manioc, and thought you might like to learn about them even before we get back to the States.

The first is a plant the Amahuaca call namfta. It is a vine which grows only in cleared areas of the forest, for example where a big tree has fallen, or in garden plots. We were able to observe the various stages of growth of the namfta plant in an area near our tent which had been cleared for skidding logs. The earliest leaves of the plant are single, but then the plant has 3, 5, 7, and in some cases finally 9 leaflets in its compound leaf. When it is at the 5 or 7 leaflet stage, the leaf looks very much like that of manioc. We didn't see the plant flower, but one informant said the flower was like that of manioc; another informant denied this. The Amahuaca never plant namfta, but they eat the fruits it produces. (We didn't see these either.) No other part of the plant is used in any way. We collected several specimens of the plant at various stages of its growth, and will bring them to you when we return to New York, which will probably be late in April or early in May.

The second plant is probably more interesting than the first. The Amahuaca call it yushimá atsá, which means "the spirits' manioc." It is a shrub that is said to grow about the size of manioc. It doesn't grow on the island, but one of the Amahuaca brought us part of a specimen which he obtained on a nearby river where he logs for a patron. The appearance of the stem, including the form of the buds, the branching pattern, and the fruit are all very much like manioc. However, on the specimen we were brought there were 3 instead of 5 or 7 leaflets on the compound leaf. Unfortunately, no root was brought, but we were told that this was small—not enlarged the way the manioc root is. No part of the plant is used by the Amahuaca. It too grows in natural or artificial clearings in the forest. We were told that there was plenty of yushimá atsá on the upper Inuya River, where we are going next, and we hope to get some complete specimens there, as well as seeing the plant actually growing. At any rate, we do have the stems, leaves and fruit of one yushimá atsá plant already, and if we can't do better, we'll at least be able to show you this.