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:

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 64 · DO #1558 · 40_Slate_Bx2FF4r

Collection
George Lewis Slate (1899–1976) papers on Arnold Arboretum
Item/Folder
Final Court Documents, 1965–1966
Digital Object
DO #1558, page 64
Collection-level dates
1949–1967, n.d.
Open PDF at page 64 ↗

Page transcription

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mens (pars. 33, 165, R. 71, 124). Of these about 75,000 were specimens of cultivated plants and 625,000 were specimens of non-cultivated plants (par. 180, R. 128), many of the latter being specimens of genera or species growing or capable of growing in the Arboretum (par. 180, R. 128-129). The presence of wild specimens related to the living collection and to cultivated specimens is important from the standpoint of botanical research and bears heavily on the quality of a herbarium (par. 151, R. 129). Like the living collections, which were largely confined to trees and woody shrubs and vines (par. 28, R. 68), the herbarium was largely limited to specimens of woody plants and contained proportionally little herbaceous material (par. 35, R. 71). The specimens acquired by the Arboretum were in some cases purchased with funds held for the Arboretum or, in others, given for its purposes and were acquired with the knowledge and authorization of the Corporation which held them subject to the Indenture of 1872 for the purposes of the Arboretum (pars. 202-203, R. 135).

The herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum early acquired and long enjoyed a reputation as an outstanding collection of specimens of woody trees and shrubs (par. 36, R. 71). The publications of the Arnold Arboretum beginning at least as early as the turn of the century contributed greatly to the prestige of the Arnold Arboretum and the herbarium was an essential tool for much of the research underlying those publications (ibid.). The development of the herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum was an essential element in the development of the reputation of the Arboretum, which long prior to 1945 was that of an outstanding center in this country, and one of the three principal centers in the world, for the study of woody plants (pars. 36, 205, R. 71, 136).

The library of the Arnold Arboretum developed out of books acquired by Professor Sargent beginning in 1873 for

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assistance in arranging the trees and the living collection of the Arboretum (par. 38, R. 72). By 1892 Professor Sargent had accumulated a collection of 10,000 books and pamphlets on dendrology, systematic botany, silviculture, forestry and geography, which in that year he gave to the Corporation for the Arboretum. At the same time Sargent gave $10,000 to the Corporation for the purchase of additional books for the Arboretum library (ibid.). Thus, the Arboretum library had more books in 1892 than it had after Harvard moved the bulk of the library in 1954 (par. 165, R. 124). In 1919 the Corporation accepted a bequest of $5,000 from Professor Sargent's wife and in 1928 it accepted a bequest of $20,000 from Professor Sargent, the income from both bequests to be used to increase the library of the Arboretum (par. 38, R. 72). By 1909 the library contained more than 20,000 volumes and at the time of Sargent's death in 1927 the library contained about 37,000 volumes and 8,000 pamphlets, and in 1954, approximately 49,000 volumes and 15,000 pamphlets (ibid.). The acquisitions resulted from gifts and from purchases with funds held for the purpose of the Arboretum and were made with the knowledge and authorization of the Corporation, which immediately prior to the move in 1954 held the books subject to the Indenture of 1872 for the purposes of the Arboretum (pars. 38, 202-203, R. 72, 135).

As long as forty years ago the library of the Arboretum had acquired a reputation as one of the greatest libraries in the world in the field of woody plants. Second only to the British Museum it contained the largest collection of books relating to plants published in the 15th and 16th centuries. By the time of Sargent's death in 1927 the library constituted the most complete collection of printed matter assembled anywhere bearing on the woody plants of the world (par. 39, R. 72). The resources of a library, so the Master found, are essential to most areas of botanical research, and the library of the Arnold Arboretum was an