Miskatonic University

Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in the equally fictitious Arkham, set in the real-world Essex County, Massachusetts. After first appearing in the H. P. Lovecraft 1922 serial "Herbert West—Reanimator", the school appeared in numerous horror stories in the Cthulhu Mythos genre written by Lovecraft and other writers. It also appears in role-playing games based on the mythos.

Miskatonic is named after the fictional Miskatonic River, which flows through Arkham. The school is the most famous institution in the imaginary setting known as Lovecraft Country.

Campus

Miskatonic University is evidently modeled on Ivy League institutions like Harvard, Yale, and especially Brown University, in Lovecraft's native Providence, Rhode Island. In Lovecraft's stories, the university's student body seems to be all-male, much like northeastern universities of Lovecraft's time. The only female student mentioned is Asenath Waite, of Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1937).Pearsall, "Miskatonic University", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 281.

Miskatonic University is famous for its collection of occult books. The library at the university holds one of the few genuine copies of the Necronomicon. Other tomes held at the library include the Unaussprechlichen Kulten by Friedrich von Junzt and the fragmentary Book of Eibon.

Miskatonic has a medical school, as featured in "Herbert West—Reanimator".

Faculty

The following table lists the professors of Miskatonic University and their respective departments from Lovecraft's stories.Ibid, pp. 281–2. (List of professors.)

**Faculty (early 20th century)**
Name	Department	Appearances
Dr. Henry Armitage	Chief Librarian	"The Dunwich Horror"
Ferdinand C. Ashley	History	"The Shadow Out of Time"
Professor Atwood	Physics	At the Mountains of Madness
Professor Dexter	Zoology	"The Whisperer in Darkness"
William Dyer	Geology	At the Mountains of Madness "The Shadow Out of Time"
Professor Ellery	Chemistry	"The Dreams in the Witch House"
Tyler M. Freeborn	Anthropology	"The Shadow Out of Time"
Dr. Allen Halsey	Dean of the Medical School	"Herbert West—Reanimator"
Professor Lake	Biology	At the Mountains of Madness
Dr. Francis Morgan	Archaeology	"The Dunwich Horror"
Professor Pabodie	Engineering	At the Mountains of Madness
Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee	Political Economy	"The Shadow Out of Time"
Wingate Peaslee	Psychology	"The Shadow Out of Time"
Professor Warren Rice	—	"The Dunwich Horror"
Professor Upham	Mathematics	"The Dreams in the Witch House"
Albert N. Wilmarth	English	At the Mountains of Madness "The Whisperer in Darkness"

Other appearances

The horror movie Re-Animator, directed by Stuart Gordon and based on a Lovecraft story, took place at Miskatonic. As a tribute to Lovecraft, Bill Pullman's character in Brain Dead attended the university, as did some characters in the film Dagon.

Dreams in the Witch House, a short film based on a Lovecraft story and directed by Stuart Gordon for the Showtime series Masters of Horror, focuses on a Miskatonic University student and takes place in and around the university.

Rod Serling's series Night Gallery had a Professor Peabody who mentions Miskatonic University in a lecture. (His students include a "Mr. Lovecraft", a "Mr. Block", and a "Mr. Derleth".)

The Millennium comics series The Whisperer in Darkness introduces The Miskatonic Project, a group of investigators who follow up on the loose ends of Lovecraft's original stories, such as "The Whisperer in Darkness".

The DC Comics character Zatanna, a female magician, uses the alias "Miss Katonic".

In the third season of Digimon, during a fictional news report, two people being interviewed were identified as professors at Miskatonic Universty.

John M. Ford's Star Trek novel How Much for Just the Planet? puts "Princess DeeDee the First" into a Miskatonic U. sweatshirt at one point.

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea mentions the university, as does Wilson's Schrödinger's Cat trilogy''.

The science fiction novel The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross, which is full of Lovecraft references, has a character whose backstory involves Miskatonic University.

The Book of the SubGenius states that the Church's founder J.R. "Bob" Dobbs attended Miskatonic for one semester sometime in the late 1930's before dropping out to join a group of Sufis (p. 28-29).

Some real-life retailers sell merchandise such as bumper stickers displaying the school's supposed mascot, the Fighting Cephalopods. Such items are often sold at science fiction conventions.

References

Notes

External links