News
New Archives’ collection added to Web site
9 July 2026
We have added a finding aid for our General Autograph Collection (GAC), Archives collection no. 370. It began with Rachel Hunt's autograph letter collection of 410 letters from 176 botanists and other naturalists, and over several decades Hunt Institute curators added additional materials. The General Autograph Collection now contains over 1,700 handwritten letters from mostly American and European botanists. The dates of the letters range from the 17th to the 20th century. One expected use for these items is as a sampling of the handwriting of botanists, which is particularly useful in determining the identity of individuals who have written notes on herbarium sheets. Perhaps equally important is the historical content with which these are incredibly rich. The collection has been digitized and is available as PDFs for downloading.
About the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, a research division of Carnegie Mellon University, specializes in the history of botany and all aspects of plant science and serves the international scientific community through research and documentation. To this end, the Institute acquires and maintains authoritative collections of books, plant images, manuscripts, portraits and data files, and provides publications and other modes of information service. The Institute meets the reference needs of botanists, biologists, historians, conservationists, librarians, bibliographers and the public at large, especially those concerned with any aspect of the North American flora.
Media Contact:
Scarlett T. Townsend
412-268-7304
st19@andrew.cmu.edu
