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 90 · DO #1677 · 72_Degener_Bx6FF25_r

Collection
Otto Degener (1899–1988) papers
Item/Folder
National Science Foundation Papers III, 1958, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #1677, page 90
Collection-level dates
1915–1985, n.d.
Open PDF at page 90 ↗

Page transcription

Mokuleia Beach,
Oahu, Hawaii.
April 20, 1958.

National Science Foundation,
Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Sirs:

1. NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

I, Otto Degener, have been associated with the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York 58, New York, as student or otherwise since 1922, and with the title of Collaborator in Hawaiian Botany since 1935. The project, for which I herewith request a grant-in-aid, would be conducted by myself as principal investigator under the aegis of Dr. David D. Keck and presumably Dr. William C. Steere.

2. TITLE OF PROPOSED RESEARCH:

The title of the proposed research would be "Botanical Exploration of the Hawaiian Islands and Continued Publication of Illustrated Descriptions in the 'Flora Hawaiensis' and Elsewhere."

3. DESIRED BEGINNING DATE OF RESEARCH:

Actually this proposed project is the continuation of work conducted under Research Grant NSF - G2216, officially intended to terminate about December 1958. This grant enabled the publication of 308 pages, of which 70 are full-page plates. It thus enabled completion of the 444-page Book 5 of the "Flora Hawaiensis or New Illustrated Flora of the Hawaiian Islands"; and the amassing of additional Hawaiian herbarium specimens, many not yet identified. Because the remaining funds for the past grant are presently chiefly allocated for the payment of plant drawings already ordered and for the publication of galley now at the printers, work is slowly bogging down for lack of additional funds. The new grant, therefore, should begin within a few months if possible.

4. TIME PERIOD FOR WHICH SUPPORT IS REQUESTED:

The period should run for approximately three years, the estimated time needed to complete another unit of the Flora.

5. DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH:

Further collection and study of the Hawaiian flora. The chief non-literary aim would be the collection and study of endemic plants, especially Lobeliaceae, Goodeniaceae and Compositae. While in search of these, members of other families encountered would not be ignored. The chief literary aim would be the completion of Book 6. Of this book, 54 pages to date have been published and distributed thanks to the Foundation's generous support.