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 #1265 · 53_Arber_Box4FF1r

Collection
Agnes Robertson Arber (1879–1960) papers
Item/Folder
Articles and notes for articles -- Ar [1], 2–5, 7–19, 1927–1958
Digital Object
DO #1265, page 2
Collection-level dates
1886–1985
Open PDF at page 2 ↗

Page transcription

Article 1
March 1941
AP 2

HISTORY OF EUROPEAN BOTANY
One of the most scholarly contributions to the history of botany, which has appeared in recent years, is the study by T.A. and M.S. Sprague of The Herbal of Valerius Cordus (Journ. Linn. Soc., Lond., Bot., 52:1, 1939). The authors have made a searching examination of the Historia Plantarum, which was written before 1545, but not published until 1561. This work has a wider scope than the herbals of Brunfels, Bock, and Fuchs; it contains early notices of many exotic drugs and timbers, in addition to numerous first records for Germany and Italy. Over 500 plants are described, of which about 66 are 'new'. The authors of the present study include an account of Cordus' life, and an appraisement of his botany from various points of view, but most of the work is occupied by a systematic consideration of the plants described and figured, and of their modern identification. Another paper by T.A. Sprague, The Evolution of the Herbal, with Special Reference to the British Flora (Trans. S.-E. Union Sci. Soc. 43: 33, 1938) deals with the subject on broad lines. Though less technical than the account of Cordus, it contains much that is original. Another recent work on herbals is Ueber alte Kräuterbücher by A. Schmid (Reprint with a preface added, from Schweitzer Beitr. z. Buchkunde, Schweizer Bibliophilen Gesellsch., Bern, 1939). This book is particularly valuable for its discussion of a number of the less well known herbals of the sixteenth century and later. An interesting feature is a diagram in the form of a complex genealogical tree, showing in graphic manner the relation to one another of the principal herbals, both as regards text and illustrations, and also distinguishing their individual contributions. The author, being a medical man, is able to give an authoritative account of the doctrine of temperaments, which is necessary for the full understanding of herbal literature. The figures include reproductions of a number of title pages, and a series of pictures of Symphytum officinale L. derived from