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 15 · DO #167 · 204_Popenoe_Bx10FF166r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Jalil, Mario, 16 November 1956–8 September 1971
Digital Object
DO #167, page 15
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 15 ↗

Page transcription

Rancho California, Almuñecar (Granada) Spain
24 March 1958

Sr Ingeniero don Mario Jalil,
Escuela Agrícola Panamericana
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Dear Mario:

How I wish you could be with us here! It is one of the most interesting places I have ever visited, and has a great future for aguacates and a number of other tropical and subtropical fruits. As Juan Fernandez has told you, however, the Julie mangos failed to get here alive; I am almost sure they got frozen somewhere along the way. I doubt that the baggage compartment in the airplanes is heated and Juan says the package stayed overnight in Lisboa, perhaps and even probably, in a place which was not heated. In any case, on being planted here they failed to show signs of life. I think we shall try again with some trees from Florida in June or July - perhaps Hadens this time.

I want to compliment you on the record you have made with the vegetable garden at Zamorano, as reported in the memorandum Dr Paddock sent us members of the Board of Trustees. Keep it up. And if you have any Mignonette lettuce seed, send me a small quantity by air mail as I would like to see it tried here. I ask this in part because I want you to write me anyway, and tell me about the new mango orchard with the Florida varieties. Some of the trees should be in bloom by this time.

There are about 200 Mexican avocado seedlings planted in orchard form here and don Luis Sarasola and I are going to graft them in May, which I think (and he thinks) will be a good month. I shall write Dr Paddock in April, asking him to authorise you to send us some puas at that time, if you can spare them. The principal one we need from Zamorano is Gottfried, of which I believe you will have more material than you need; we will also want Simonds, which may be hard to get in Florida. Sr Sarasola has found that your veneer graft is very successful here, provided one uses the terminals, not just short sections of young branchlets. We will need puas of pretty good diameter and fairly mature, as the patrons are seedlings 3/4 to an inch in diameter. Keep this in mind.

The cherimoyas here are wonderful, and lots of them! Probably the largest commercial plantings of grafted trees in the world. Are you going to have any capulin cherries from the Amato trees on Wyuca this year? I would like to get 100 seeds if you do. We shall be here, off and on, until October probably; in the meantime we hope to go to Israel to see our friend Ticho and others, and probably to the Canary Islands and Madeira.

Warmest regards to all, and do let me hear from you every once in a while, at the address shown at the head of this letter.

Sincerely,