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 71 · 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 71
Collection-level dates
1949–1967, n.d.
Open PDF at page 71 ↗

Page transcription

24

the lack of uniformity in salary and other policies, the
antagonisms and disagreements between them and a resulting
duplication of research and of herbarium and library
facilities (par. 62, R. 82). The Report made sweeping proposals for the reorganization of botany at Harvard (par.
63, R. 82).

First, the Report suggested the establishment of two
so-called Institutes, for administrative and budgetary purposes, each under its own Chairman (par. 64, R. 82). One of the Institutes, denominated the "Institute of Research in General Plant Morphology", was to include the institutions and fields of research dependent upon accumulations of preserved material, such as taxonomy, phytogeography (the study of fossil plants), comparative anatomy, and the descriptive aspects of economic botany. The specific institutions or collections recommended to be included in the Institute for Research in General Plant Morphology were the Gray Herbarium, the Farlow Library and Herbarium, the herbaria, library and collections of the Botanical Museum, and that part of the Arnold Arboretum consisting of its library and herbarium, which the Report proposed be renamed "The Sargent Library and Herbarium" (ibid.).

The other Institute recommended to be established in the
Report, denominated the "Institute for Research in Experimental and Applied Botany", was to include the institutions and fields of research concerned with plant genetics (plant heredity), plant physiology (the functions of living plants), horticulture, silviculture, and experimental aspects of economic botany. This Institute was to include the Atkins Institution, the Botanic Garden, the Harvard Forest, the Bussey Institution, the Cabot Foundation, and the grounds and living collections of the Arnold Arboretum and, until disposed of (as the Report recommended), the Case estates in Weston which consisted of more than 150 acres of land given for the purposes of the Arnold Arboretum (par. 64, R. 82-83).


25

Second, the Bailey Report recommended that all botanists of professorial rank should receive salaries equivalent to those paid in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in the University, which included the Biology Department, and proposed an arrangement, thereafter commonly referred to as the so-called "quid pro quo", under which one-half of each salary was to be paid by the University and the remaining one-half by one or more of the botanical institutions through the Institutes (par. 66, R. 83).

Third, the Report, after taking the position that the maintenance of five separate and overlapping herbaria and libraries in the same general field was wasteful and inefficient, recommended that all five libraries and herbaria, including the library and herbarium of the Arnold Arboretum, should be combined and housed in a central building in the closest possible proximity to the biological laboratories in Cambridge (par. 67, R. 83).

Fourth, the Report in an appendix analyzed in detail the extent of apparent duplication in the various botanical libraries and recommended that duplicates be disposed of (par. 70, R. 84).

The Bailey Report contained little discussion of the Indenture of 1872 and did not state whether the Indenture established a trust (par. 74, R. 85). In the course of the Report, in considering the possibility of an abandonment of living collections of the Arboretum, the Report characterized the Arboretum as the "goose that lays the golden eggs" and recommended against abandonment of the living collections for these and other reasons (ibid.).

The aim of the Bailey plan was to effect a reorganization of Harvard's botanical resources through a formulation of broad plans for the promotion of the science of botany by eliminating waste and inefficiency in the various botanical institutions (par. 71, R. 84). In recommending the combination of libraries and herbaria, including the library and