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 176 · 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 176
Collection-level dates
1947–1962
Open PDF at page 176 ↗

Page transcription

Rolf Grönblad
Karis
Centralgatan 86
Dec.15th 1953.

Dear Friend Scott,

I was very sorry to hear about your illness and I hope earnestly that
you will recover thoroughly and very soon. Good health is of fundamental
importance.
I shall write to "Botaniska Notiser" and ask them if our Scotia-de-
scription could be published there very soon.
Last Sunday I was on a short trip to Abo (=Turku in Finnish) to see
my friend dr Paavo Kallio. He is a rather skilled microphotographer and
I had brought with me the apparatus you sent me. Ha had himself a Swiss
camera of nearly the same construction. So we tried my apparatus taking
pictures of Scotia mira. The result of our manipulations was not very
good but not quite bad either.Now I know how to do,and there is needed
only a lot of exercise and many experimentations.Also, I must have a new
and much better light source,it is quite an essential thing. I see now
that the microphotography will take much time - but I will try. Did you
take any micrphotos of Scotia mira? If you have a good one,I think it
would be useful to publish it together with the original description.
I think it must be taken by a rather low magnification and then enlargen-
ed (because the processes are all in different plans).
To dr Sioli I have already sent a copy of Desm.Brasilienses.If,in
any way,It would be possible to get living specimens for dr Kallio,who as
you know,cultivates Micrasterias and other Desmids, it would be very good.
But the only possible way is that dr Sioli would catch from quite fresh
material somehealthy-looking cells by means of a capillary pipette and
put them into sterile nutrient liquid -(not more than some 10 cells in
a flask of 100 cm, with only about 20 ccm of liquid in it). The numerous
zooplanktons and all kinds of bacteria and fungi are very injurious to
the life of Desmid cells. In spite of all these difficulties it would be
worth while to try to send living cells. But in order to save time of
transport dr Sioli (or another collector) ought to send the liming mat-
erila directly by air mail to dr Kallio (Turun Yliopisto,Turku,Finland)
The flask must be carefully sealed by means of paraffine. I saw a flask
with living Micrasterias-cells in dr Kallio's laboratory which had been
kept sealed for nearly a year! - Well, I dont know if this plan can be real-
ized,but if so,then it would be wonderful. (You have Kallio's papers on
Micrasterias ?)
Your 4 suggestions as to the completion of the description of Scotia
are all good and useful.
I have asked about the possibility of your being a joint author to
Scotia - but,as I thought, it seems not advisable,it would not look quite
"proper".If you wish to be the author,then a name such as "Scotia" cannot
be used. Sorry!
I had not thought of attending the Congress in Paris 1954,and I have
not tried to obtain a grant for that purpose.Now, I think, it will be too
late (?). But if you could get a grant for a visit to Finland it would be
wonderful and we should certainly do good work together here. Why couldnt
you get such a grant, when Hannah Croasdale got it?