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 6 · DO #1610 · 72_Degener_Bx2FF33_r

Collection
Otto Degener (1899–1988) papers
Item/Folder
Correspondence, 1974–1975, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #1610, page 6
Collection-level dates
1915–1985, n.d.
Open PDF at page 6 ↗

Page transcription

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Botany

January 3, 1974

Drs. Otto & Isa Degener
R. I., Box 89, Mokuleia Beach
Waialua, Oahu, Hawaii 96791

Aloha Drs. Otto & Isa Degener:

I hope you will accept my apologies for being so late in accepting your very valued set of reprints and books. They are greatly appreciated and I hope will serve as the basis of a collection of all your works that I am planning to put together. This is part of a project in which I hope to bring together all major natural history and botanical studies on the Hawaiian Islands.

Although I have been in Hawaii for a little over two years, I have found myself busy revitalizing an almost dead herbarium and introducing new university courses in botany. I have introduced a new course "Plants in the Hawaiian Environment" so that students will again become aware of what is around them and I have taken over "Ethnobotany" from Miss Krauss. These are in addition to my upper division Taxonomy and Advanced Systematics courses. In preparation for these introductory courses I have found only one worthwhile text and that is your Hawaii National Park book. It is full of the type of information most students enjoy and seem to be missing in other Hawaiian works. The herbarium was a shambles when I arrived and is slowly taking shape. I am trying to build up the university collection for immediate class and research use because it appears that the Bishop collection unfortunately goes neglected. In addition Dr. St. John gave us his reprint, journal and book collection which I am incorporating into the herbarium research area. If there is anything you may need at the university I will gladly get a copy or xerox of it for you as soon as possible.

At a personal level I had a little bad luck in my family back East since I arrived here and this has delayed my plans somewhat. However things now appear to be moving along more smoothly. During the present Christmas break I am returning to the New York area (my home ground) and will visit the New York Botanical Garden and the Smithsonian Institution if weather and relatives permit.

You may wonder why I have been so long in writing and requesting a pleasant get-together but I have been reluctant on the grounds of my lack of knowledge of the Hawaiian Flora. However I now feel I know a little and would like very much to meet the two of you on some occasion convenient to you. I still feel it would be like a lowly priest meeting the Pope (please no offense if you are Catholic) but I am sure it would be enjoyable. Therefore I would like to invite you and your wife to dine at Volcano House on the Big Island if a time can be mutually

Plant Science Building - Room 101 - 3190 Maile Way - Honolulu, Hawaii 96822/Cable Address: UNIHAW
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER