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 3 · DO #1584 · 72_Degener_Bx2FF9_r

Collection
Otto Degener (1899–1988) papers
Item/Folder
Correspondence, 1950
Digital Object
DO #1584, page 3
Collection-level dates
1915–1985, n.d.
Open PDF at page 3 ↗

Page transcription

American Begonia Society
214 NO. YALE STREET
FULLERTON, CALIFORNIA

MRS. E. CARRELL
SEED FUND ADMINISTRATOR

Armchair Explorers Club
March 15, 1950

Mr. Otto Degener,
Waialua, Oahu, T.H.

Dear Mr. Degener:

Mrs. Nolan, the librarian for the A.B.S., has forwarded your letter to me to read. We have for sometime been interested in the Begonia Hillebrandia and have tried to get seeds of it. Mrs. Virginia Gillespie of Hawaii made several trips after seed but did not find any. Our new editor of the Begonian has a relative born and raised on Kauai and she is writing to see if he might be able to gather seeds. I have charge of the Seed Fund, a department of our Society, and endeavor to locate seeds of begonias and any unusual plants for our members and I offer them at very low prices- little more than actual cost so that many can have the pleasure of growing these plants and that the newer kinds may be introduced into cultivation.

I have brought in many many kinds of begonia seeds from all over the world-securing them by corresponding with seed collectors and botanic gardens- exchanging and purchasing when possible. I would very much prefer to have seeds, the tubers might be rotted by the time they reach here and then so few members could grow them. I wrote up part of your letter for my April column in our magazine and perhaps some folks will want the corms. Mr. Rudolf Ziesenhenne grew some plants of these several years ago but lost them under lath, he believes if he had kept them under glass he might have been more successful. We would be happy to copy your description and illustration of B. Hillebrandia in our magazine if it meets with your approval.

Can you advise the size of the tubers and if you think they would carry well, also the possibility of seeds. I am very interested in fern spores, and all interesting seeds of perennials, lilies, shrubs etc. Perhaps as you run onto them in your travels you might care to gather them and sell.

Thank you,

Sincerely,
Mrs. E. Carrell
Florence Carrell