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 11 · DO #101 · 204_Popenoe_Bx7FF99r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Fenzi, Franco and Ernestine, 24 April 1955 –29 October 1959
Digital Object
DO #101, page 11
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 11 ↗

Page transcription

ING. FRANCO F. FENZI
PIAZZETTA BAGNASCO 7 - PALERMO
TELEFONO 17613

Palermo, Italy
May 28, 1958

Dear Wilson:

Well, well! I am dazed and completely amazed by the news you are in this part of the world.

The Hotel is the "Esperia Hotel, Via Nazionale 22".
Besides the Borsalino hat you may remember the fish-soup in Trastevere!

In Florence Guido Corsini passed away last year - very sad - cancer of the lung. I have lots of relatives there but those I am intimate with, are on their properties outside Florence. The Agrarian reform keeps them on the land most of the time now. A good friend in Florence is Prof. Abetti, astronomer, director of the observatory of Arcetri. A very active and interesting man. Please go and see him. Some years ago, returning from Mt. Palomar, he brought to Florence a few Fuerte fruits from Pasadena, planted the seeds and had a tree blooming and setting fruit in a sheltered place near the observatory. (It is still there if it has'nt died after the freeze of two years ago).

Right now it doesn't seem at all likely I shall be in Rome during June as I am tied-up with business that requires my presence here, but I do hope you may arrange to come to Palermo, even for a short visit.

The Sicily climate is ideal for Avocados although in most places the winds that don't bother lemons very much would be very harmful for them. There are several bearing trees around Palermo but only one has fruit of really good quality. (I am trying to propagate it). The bud came from California and the fruit looks like a large Fuerte. Some years ago a friend had some restaurants in New York save Avocado seeds and so gathered several hundred which I turned over to the Botanical Garden here to grow, but they did not have much luck - kept them too wet. In the meantime we set several buds on an old sterile tree and now two kinds are bearing on it. Those that have tasted the fruit don't like it and this makes it difficult to create an interest to plant even on an experimental scale. I have given away trees here and there and some are beginning to bloom now.