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.

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Page 27 · DO #2689 · 48_20th%20Century%20Botanists_Bx5FF63r

Collection
Twentieth Century Botanists correspondence and other materials
Item/Folder
Misc. Recipients T - W, 1897–1963
Digital Object
DO #2689, page 27
Collection-level dates
1873–1970
Open PDF at page 27 ↗

Page transcription

Among the conspicuous flowers of the prairie flora are:
the pasque-flower or Easter lily, not a lily at all but
a sort of an anemone and was called Anemone patens
variety Nuttalliana in Gray's old Manual. This is a very
pretty species, once common on the highest prairies in the
northern portion of Iowa. Being the first of the vernal flora
to unfold its flowers above the dead grass, as is its usual
habit, it presents a striking and welcome object in early
spring, turning the brown and peer hills to beautiful
roseate tints. I have found this plant in full bloom the day
after a melting snow storm. The flow has played havoc
with the prairies so this species lingers by the waysides
or in open upland thickets and out of the way places
which have been untouched by the tillers of the soil.
The flowers open in March or early in April immediately
after the melting of the snow and are mostly fallen before May,
though in upland thickets where the frost stays late on the
ground, a few individuals may be found even so late
as the last of June. The lengthening of the peduncle after
flowering and the globular head of achenes with their
long plumose style give a striking aspect to the plant as it
sways in the breeze, a veritable little
plumed knight of the prairies.

Other prairie plants are: rock-rose (Helianthemum canadense),
bird-foot violet (Viola pedata), New-Jersey tea (Ceanothus
americana and ovatus), indigo (Baptisia leucantha and
leucophaca), the pomme de prairie (Psoralea esculenta)
with its large turnip shaped root much used by the Indians
and explorers for food, silver-leaf Psoralea (Psoralea
argophylla), white prairie clover (Petalostemon candidus), violet
prairie clover (Petalostemon violaceus), ground plum (Astilbeus
caryocarpus), lead-plant (Amorpha canescens), vetch (Vicia
americana), cinque-foil (Potentilla arguta), rose (Rosa
arborescens), prairie primrose (Oenothera serrulata),