Miskatonic University


Miskatonic University is a fictional university located in Arkham, a fictional town in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is named after the Miskatonic River. After first appearing in H. P. Lovecraft's 1922 story "Herbert West–Reanimator", the school appeared in numerous Cthulhu Mythos stories by Lovecraft and other writers. The story "The Dunwich Horror" implies that Miskatonic University is a highly prestigious university, on par with Harvard University, and that Harvard and Miskatonic are the two most popular schools for the children of the Massachusetts "Old Gentry". The university also appears in role-playing games and board games based on the mythos.

Origin

Lovecraft concocted the word Miskatonic from a mixture of root words from the Algonquian languages. Place-names based on the Algonquian languages are common throughout New England. Anthony Pearsall believes that Lovecraft based the name on the Housatonic River which extends from the Long Island Sound through the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and western Connecticut.
Daniel Harms suggests that Miskatonic is derived from the Misqat, a tribe descended from the Native Americans of Massachusetts.

Campus

Miskatonic University is modeled on the northeastern Ivy League universities of Lovecraft's day, perhaps Brown University of his hometown Providence which Lovecraft himself wished to attend. In Lovecraft's stories, the university's student body is implied 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".
To represent Miskatonic University in their film adaptation of The Whisperer in Darkness in 2009, the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society chose Mount Holyoke College. The film uses Pasadena City College for interior scenes of the school. Alan Moore's 2015-17 comic Providence used Saint Anselm College as the "real" Miskatonic University.
Miskatonic University is famous for its collection of occult books. The library holds one of the very few genuine copies of the Necronomicon. Other tomes include Unaussprechlichen Kulten by Friedrich von Junzt and the fragmentary Book of Eibon.
Miskatonic's medical school features in "Herbert West—Reanimator".
Interpretations by other authors and fans differ as to whether mystical and Mythos studies at the University are covert or overt. In the first interpretation, which follows Lovecraftian literary traditions, Miskatonic University is an apparently ordinary school whose occult undercurrent only occasionally breaks the surface. In the second, more common in comedic and RPG works, Mythos and strange elements are overtly displayed and form part of its campus identity.

Faculty

Lovecraft's work

The following table lists the professors of Miskatonic University and their respective departments from Lovecraft's stories.
NameDepartmentAppearances
Dr. Henry ArmitageChief Librarian"The Dunwich Horror"
Professor Ferdinand C. AshleyAncient HistoryThe Shadow Out of Time
Professor AtwoodPhysicsAt the Mountains of Madness
Professor DexterZoologyThe Whisperer in Darkness
Professor William DyerGeologyAt the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow Out of Time
Professor ElleryChemistry"The Dreams in the Witch House"
Professor Tyler M. FreebornAnthropologyThe Shadow Out of Time
Dr. Allen HalseyDean of the Medical School"Herbert West–Reanimator"
Professor LakeBiologyAt the Mountains of Madness
Dr. Francis MorganArchaeology"The Dunwich Horror"
Professor Frank H. PabodieEngineeringAt the Mountains of Madness
Professor Nathaniel Wingate PeasleePolitical EconomyThe Shadow Out of Time
Professor Wingate PeasleePsychologyThe Shadow Out of Time
Professor Warren RiceLanguages"The Dunwich Horror"
Professor UphamMathematics"The Dreams in the Witch House"
"Old" WaldronCollege doctor"The Dreams in the Witch House"
Albert N. WilmarthEnglish and FolkloreAt the Mountains of Madness
The Whisperer in Darkness

Other authors' work

Etymology

Lovecraft has declared that the word was "a jumble of Algonquian roots."