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 18 · DO #1633 · 72_Degener_Bx3FF47_r

Collection
Otto Degener (1899–1988) papers
Item/Folder
Correspondence, Various Dates, 1927–1985, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #1633, page 18
Collection-level dates
1915–1985, n.d.
Open PDF at page 18 ↗

Page transcription

N.S. Vol. III Spring, 1957 No. 2

THE ASA GRAY BULLETIN, NEW SERIES.--An irregularly published journal of which four numbers constitute a volume, devoted to more or less informal communication among the members of the three organizations listed below and our subscribers in general. Progress reports of current field, garden, and herbarium work, with readable and relatively non-technical articles in the fields related to systematics, botanical history, biography, and bibliography, will be preferred. There will be special emphasis upon preparatory work for a new "Flora of Michigan". Free use will be made of letters to the Editors (if released for publication by their writers) and of current news notes regarding botanists.

Items for publication should be addressed to either of the Editors at the Department of Botany, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Contributors of major articles may secure 100 copies of their contributions, at a cost of $1.25 per page or fraction thereof. Covers furnished without additional charge.

Address subscriptions to Miss Hazel Bartlett, 1601 Brooklyn Ave., Ann Arbor, Michigan. Subscription price for Volume I (if available) is $6.00; single copies of Nos. 2, 3, and 4, $1.00 each. Vols. II and III, $3.00 each; single copies (if not breaking volumes) 75¢ each.

THE GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION, FOUNDED 1887.--This organization sponsored publication of early volumes of the Asa Gray Bulletin. Later it issued a mimeographed "Bulletin". Its object is to commemorate the life and botanical work of Asa Gray and to assist its members in botanical activity by furthering friendly correspondence and cooperation among them. Interested persons are invited to communicate with the Permanent Secretary, Professor R. Lee Walp, Department of Biology, Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio.

MICHIGAN BOTANICAL GARDENS ASSOCIATION.--Founded in 1925 to include persons interested in promoting the development and current activities of the Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan. There are no dues, but subscription to the Asa Gray Bulletin is invited. For further information, communicate with Dr. Frieda Cobb Blanchard, Secretary, 2014 Geddes Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

MICHIGAN BOTANICAL CLUB.--The membership is about 283, made up of persons interested in the Michigan flora, nature-study, wild-flower protection, preservation of natural areas, and conservation. It has members at large and the following chapters: Southeastern, Bay County, Marquette, Wild-Life (Houghton). For information address Mr. Paul W. Thompson, 17503 Kirkshire, Birmingham, Michigan, or Mrs. Robert Frehse, 506 W. Maplehurst St., Ferndale, Michigan.

Edited and published for
THE GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION,
BOTANICAL GARDENS ASSOCIATION
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
and
THE MICHIGAN BOTANICAL CLUB
by
Harley H. Bartlett and Rogers McVaugh

CONTENTS
WILLHELM HILLEBRAND, 1821-1886
by
Otto Degener
Author's Separate