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 172 · DO #4987 · 230_Croasdale_Bx1FF22_r

Collection
Croasdale, Hannah Thompson (1905–1999) correspondence and drawings of Rolf Leo Grönblad (1895-1962) and Arthur Moreland Scott (1888-1963)
Item/Folder
Correspondence: Grönblad and Scott, 1947–1955
Digital Object
DO #4987, page 172
Collection-level dates
1947–1962
Open PDF at page 172 ↗

Page transcription

it looked a bit curious, so I wrote to Krieger about it. (But I cannot
find his answer among his very many letters!) "Scottia mira Scott & 
Grönblad" - I don't know if it looks very nice? I shall ask my prof-
essional botanical friends. (You could do the same).

Of course I am most willing to cooperate with you as regards
the Brazilian Algae. Try to forgive me that I do not always answer to
your questions. I know there are more of them, but I have also made a
list of questions which I am to answer. I would like to have something
ready for print and I hope to have some "New and Interesting Desmids"
ready for you - soon, I hope. (I have not at all opened my vials from
the last summer's excursions).

Thank you again for the photo cassettes, which I got today.
Also Mnthl.Scient. arrived. Many thanks. I have not yet experimented
with the micrcamera but I have asked two friends: a amateur photogra-
pher, who is very skilled, and anoptician in Helsingfors. I shall at
my next visit to Åbo (=Turku) ask dr Kallio to show me the proper usage
You see, I am myself very clumsy and ignorant as photographer.

My "staining method" with "washing" is very simple. I use:
a) Gentiana violet 0.2 "Anilinwater" 18 ccm Spiritus 2 ccm or
b) Methylviolet 0.1 Anilinwater 9.0 Spiritus 1.0
these solutions I use without dilution, and I put with a glass staff
or a pincet as much as needed to the edge of the coverglass; then I
look into the microscope how the staining is going on, and when the
cell-wall is sufficiently stained (1 minute dr so) the solution of
potassium acetate is put to the edge of the coverglass and a piece
of blotting-paper to the opponent edge until all staining liquid