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 121 · DO #1518 · 392_blunt_FF1_r

Collection: Wilfrid Jasper Walter Blunt (1901–1987) correspondence
Item/Folder: Correspondence , 1959–1964, .n.d.
Digital Object: DO #1518, page 121
Collection-level dates: 1959–1987, n.d.

Open PDF at page 121 ↗

Page transcription

28 August 1963

Mr. Wilfrid Blunt
Watts Gallery
Compton, Nr. Guildford,
England

Dear Wilfrid:

Thank you for your kind note written on your return to Compton.

With regard to the April meeting. It appears rather definite that it must be at the end of April and I am provisionally setting it for Saturday the 25th of April, with the preliminary meetings by we botanists for the two days prior to them. I have to give a lecture at Princeton on Tuesday, April 28. One reason no date was set when we met was because at that time the French had not indicated very clearly when the Adanson celebration would be held at Aix-en-Provence in Paris. Later, and before leaving, I got the feeling that it would be at the end of March. This however is still subject to change and no definite date has been received here. They may find that the inroads of the Easter holidays in the last week of March will force them to change their thinking. Certainly our meeting will not be held any earlier than the 25th of April. I hope, this, indefinite though it may be, is enough to help you plan your trip to Persia.

You may be sure that John Brindle is planning to work with you closely in connection with our Princeton paintings program when you are here next April. It should please you to know that we are now thinking of setting up an exhibition of herbals and examples of the botanical illustration as it existed during the period of the herbals, immediately following the Adanson exhibit. We are going to use your proposal of reproducing some of the early illustrations by means of blown up photographs. If you have suggestions of some that you know lend themselves to this, we would be very pleased to have them. Also, if you know of Institutions that may have such blown up photographs, we might be tempted to write to inquire if they could be borrowed for our exhibition use. This might be asking too much, however.

Again, many thanks for your kind note and the many nice things you wrote in it. They are appreciated.

Most sincerely,

George H. M. Lawrence
Director

GHML:me