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 202 · DO #4924 · 231_Rogers_Bx9FF6_r

Collection
David James Rogers (1918–2007) papers
Item/Folder
Manihot - Correspondence, 1966–1969
Digital Object
DO #4924, page 202
Collection-level dates
1948–1977
Open PDF at page 202 ↗

Page transcription

- Taxonomy Laboratory

March 24, 1966

Dr. Peter H. Raven
Division of Systematic Biology
Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305

Dear Peter:

I am sorry I delayed answering your letter of the 8th for I am really excited to hear of your interest in the ethnobotanical work in Chiapas, and your findings on Manihot there.

The enclosed reprint gives some ideas I have about the early cultivation of M. esculenta, and indicates that the area you are working in may be very significant in this connection. There was an earlier paper with other details in the Bull. Torrey Bot. Club (90:43-54, 1963) but I am out of reprints.

Also enclosed are a set of instructions for the collection of data and specimens of Manihot cultivars. I have evolved this procedure over a number of years of study, and it covers the main points for the study of the morphological variability of the cultivars. For an ethnological study, I have not developed any clear set of instructions for data gathering, but can suggest a few items that might be useful. You should discover the cultivation techniques employed: when planted, whether interplanted with other crops or single-crop culture; any local superstitions about planting (dark of the moon, etc.); when harvested (month, or after the maize is harvested, or at irregular intervals); do they plant a single cultivar, or do they mix several together (I know you found only two, but look around--they may have more that they lump together under a single epithet). Take note of the way they use the roots: simple boiling, or more complex preparation; do they use any special utensils, baskets, or griddles. Note any specification they may have for the places of planting; close by their dwellings or removed; is the facing of the planting on an east-west, or north-south side of hills, or in valleys, etc. Any folklore should be investigated.

These are but suggestions for your data gathering. They are intended to discover whether the natives have a long history of cultivation, or whether rather recent. If they have a long history of using this crop, they will probably have a number of specific requirements. Your own interests will dictate the types of information