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 #1104 · 26_Mathias_Bx2FF11r

Collection
Mildred Esther Mathias (1906–1995) papers
Item/Folder
Mathias letter copies 4, 1937–1942, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #1104, page 6
Collection-level dates
1927–1952
Open PDF at page 6 ↗

Page transcription

know Mr. Jones personally they can undoubtedly give you much more information concerning his ability and experience.

The work on the Umbelliferae is coming along slowly. I am constantly delayed from writing manuscript by the identifications of numerous specimens and the checking of manuscripts on the family for various local floras. Yet I feel that I cannot say no to such requests since one of the important factors in the study of the family is the examination of as many specimens as possible so that I can have a better idea of the variations that occur within species and genera. I have completed the genus Cogswellia, probably the largest in the flora, and it is now in press in the Missouri Botanical Garden Annals. There were several new species, varieties and combinations as well as certain notes which I wished to publish before the publication of the North American Flora number.

I am enjoying more and more the University atmosphere and the Berkeley climate. I now have the title of Research Associate at the University, no salary and no duties but it gives me library privileges and such. I take time out each week to attend a graduate seminar in floral morphology and anatomy which I am finding most interesting and instructive. I have been very fortunate in having many opportunities for field studies of some of my little known species and find that a day in the field will solve some of the problems I have worried over in the herbarium for years. The herbarium collections here are fairly adequate except for Mexican and Central American material although they do have many of the Pringle collections. There is also surprisingly little of some of the common eastern species but fortunately I know most of them adequately. Then too I can readily consult Jepson's unparalleled collections of California umbels. That is, I can consult them when Dr. Jepson is here to unlock the cases. Now that he has retired it is sometimes difficult to catch him in his office.

With regards to Mrs. Gleason and to my various garden friends, I am

Sincerely yours,
Mildred E. Mathias