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 30 · DO #110 · 204_Popenoe_Bx7FF108r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Fonseca Z., Hernán, 21 August 1957 –10 September 1971
Digital Object
DO #110, page 30
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 30 ↗

Page transcription

7

regions. It is slow to come into production, though they now have a variety in Florida (its name is Prolific) which comes into bearing at an early age and the fruits are of large size. In the past five years I have taken many grafted trees of this variety to Guatemala. The common name in Florida is sapodilla; in Guatemala it is sometimes called nispero. There are commercial plantings of Prolific and one or two other grafted varieties wouth of Miami in Florida.

The Chinese lychee (Litchi chinensis) is grown commercially in Florida and we have been working with it for more than 30 years in Honduras and Guatemala. I don't know how much has been done with it in Costa Rica. The problem, even in Florida has been to make the tree produce good crops annually. The behavior of the varieties which have been planted up to now has been very erratic. The solution of the problem may lie in the development of a new variety which bears good crops regularly. Our experience in Honduras and Guatemala indicates that climate is also a major factor. We have not been able to do much with it in wet climates like that of Lancetilla but have not given up hope for it when grown in climates with a long dry season. The cooperative lychee growers of Florida association has shipped north as many as 35,000 pounds of lychees a year, and they get about a dollar a pound.

FRUTALES DE LA ZONA TEMPLADA

I wonder when the first attempts were made to grow apples, pears, plums and peaches in Costa Rica? We can be pretty sure that early colonists from Spain brought peaches with them as they did to all their colonies from Florida to Argentina. I wonder if any information can be found by going through the early literature, especially that of the 19th century. Experience of the past 50 years has shown that we are up against a tough job. The situation today as I see it, based upon my recent brief visit to Costa Rica and what I have learned from