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 35 · DO #1607 · 72_Degener_Bx2FF30B_r

Collection
Otto Degener (1899–1988) papers
Item/Folder
Correspondence, 1971, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #1607, page 35
Collection-level dates
1915–1985, n.d.
Open PDF at page 35 ↗

Page transcription

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY
1504 SOUTH GRAND BOULEVARD
SAINT LOUIS, MISSOURI 63104
TOWNSEND P-2288 - STA. 457

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

Nov. 29, 1971

Dr. Velva Rudd
Dept. of Botany
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C.

Dear Velva:

Imagine hearing from me! Actually I am very busy and making
a great deal of progress research-wise at the moment. During the Thanks-
giving Holidays I got to do something which I have put off for quite a
while. This is an analysis of the cards which Henri Pittier prepared for
his collections in Panama in 1911, part of 1912, and a few in 1914.
These cards were around the herbarium of the Missouri Bot. Gardem for
years, representing something that Dr. Woodson planned to investigate but
never did. Pittier has written out in his own hand his own collection
numbers, locality, date of collection, and whether the material is in
flower and/or fruit. Other collectors like Hitchcock, Cowell, Maxon etc.
are also listed. As the sequence of the cards is based on the family
and the binomial rather than the collection number I have decided to under-
take the laborious task of making a file-card system based on collection
numbers. This is near completion.

My plan is to publish a paper dealing with Pittier's wanderings
in Panama. Now I am equally interested in listing type collections,
collections which have been identified (by him, I assume) under binomials
which have not appeared in recent treatments of families in the Flora of
Panama etc/

One problem I am encountering is that I have little data on his
botanical collecting activities in 1912 (except for the months of Jan.
and February). Maybe I lack the cards. My plan is to dig into the published
revisions. It crossed my mind that the library at the Smithsonian, i.e. the
botany library, may have a file on Pittier which may solve the problem. If
there is material available, I may either go to Washington or hope that
the stuff can be xeroxed.

Things are happening at the Garden and no doubt the grape-vine
has supplied data. I am much impressed by Peter Raven,

If you can help me in any way I would appreciate the same. I
have taken the liberty of sending your librarian a copy of this.

P.S. Mr. Wunderlin sends his best. Thanks
for helping him

Sincerely
John D. Dwyer Ph.D
Prof., Biology