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 198 · DO #496 · 204_Popenoe_Bx41Volume11r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Field notes: "Guatemalan Explorations, 1916–1917", 1916–1917
Digital Object
DO #496, page 198
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 198 ↗

Page transcription

that of the fruits.

Aside from a more or less conscious process of selection, to which is probably due the improvement of one of the native fruits, horticulture in our understanding of the tree, is almost unknown. Even questioning of a number of intelligent Indians who obtain considerable numbers of fruit trees failed to bring out any detailed cultural conditions. In regard to the avocado, it does not appear that Mr. De la Cruz till the soil around the tree, apply fertilizers from the tree, or select any care upon it whatsoever. Ideas regarding the age at which seedling trees come into bearing are nearly always vague and rarely based upon accurate observation of a single instance. It is astonishing, in fact, that an agricultural people should have so few definite ideas regarding the culture of a crop which plays an important part in their daily life as the avocado. This notwithstanding the fact that this cultivation may be founded on for they are an intelligent and in many ways capable people. The art of grafting appears to have been unknown before the advent of the Europeans, and is almost unknown at the present day.

Conditions are scarcely better among ladies.


Thursday. San Cristobal, Verapaz, Guatemala Apr 12 1917

This morning I went to Cobán to obtain budwood of avocado No. 8. I found the tree in fine condition, with the growth far better advanced than on most of the trees here in San Cristóbal. That was the flush of growth which produces the flowers and fruit. As far as I observed, the trees were setting much fruit this season.

The following is Mrs. David Currie's receipt for tamales:

4 lbs sugar
1 lb cocoa
1/2 lb toasted rice
3 oz cinnamon
1 oz achote (Bixa orellana)
Vanilla to suit the taste.

Toasted French bread can be used in place of rice if desired. All these ingredients are mixed together and ground to a fine powder. About 2 tablespoonsfuls of the powder are put in a glass by water, and mixed thoroughly with the molinillo.