Miskatonic University
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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.
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[edit] 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).[1]
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".
Mythos fiction by other authors as well as fan interpretations of Lovecraft's MU differ in whether mystical and Mythos studies are covert or overt. In the first interpretation, which follows Lovecraftian literary traditions, MU is an ordinary university that also harbors secrets and has an unfortunately frequent number of run-ins with Mythos elements. In the second, more common in comedic and RPG works (and in MU paraphernalia), Mythos and strange elements are overtly displayed at MU and form part of its campus cultural identity.
[edit] Faculty
The following table lists the professors of Miskatonic University and their respective departments from Lovecraft's stories.[2]
| 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 | Languages | "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" |
[edit] Reference Guides
Chaosium Press published several guides to the 1920s Miskatonic University. The first was a lengthy section in 'Arkham Unveiled' (1990) by Keith Herber with others and put a full university setting around existing Lovecraftian Mythos references. The second was a full-length book titled 'Miskatonic University' (1995) by Sandy Antunes. Subtitled 'Where Science Meets the Mythos', this edition tried to merge and reconcile the Chaosium setting of 'Arkham Unveiled', the original Mythos sources, and historical 'period' details derived especially from 1920s Boston University, while also added new items to the setting. A copy of this out-of-print book is in Boston University's "Special Collections", and Chaosium granted rights in 1997 to a fan to reuse some of this material for the website miskatonic-university.org. The third was a new edition of 'Miskatonic University' (2005) by 'Sam Johnson & friends' published in late 2005. This edition reworked the previous book and added more mystical and mythos game elements.
Joan Stanley published a small book, "Ex Libris Miskatonici: A Catalogue of Selected Items from the Special Collections in the Miskatonic University Library", which is a researched historical fiction reference for canonical Mythos book references regarding MU.
Work was started at Chaosium on a sourcebook 'Arkham 1990' including a modern-day Miskatonic University, but that has not (as of 2006) yet been published.
Mottos for MU have ranged from "Ex Ignorantia Ad Sapientiam; E Luce Ad Tenebras" ('From Ignorance to Wisdom; From Light to Darkness') to "A Small Sacrifice for Knowledge", and their mascot has been stated as everything from the Badger to the Fighting Cephalopods.
[edit] 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 a character 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. Bloch", and a "Mr. Derleth".)
- The Millennium comics series H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu: 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".
- In the third season of Digimon, during a fictional news report, two people being interviewed were identified as professors at Miskatonic University.
- 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 1930s before dropping out to join a group of Sufis (p. 28-29). SubGenius avatar Harry S. Robins's character, Nathan Wingate, in the film Kamillions, is associated with Miskatonic University.
- Mike Young's "Misktonic Class Reunion" is a LARP set in MU. It has been run over 20 times across the US.
- 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.
- Martin Greenwood and Martin Weinberg edited a collection of new Lovecraftian stories all set in MU, titled "Miskatonic University", published in 1996 and currently out of print.
- The case studies in the textbook Systems Analysis for Librarians and Information Professionals by Larry N. Osborne and Margaret Nakamura are set in a ficticious library (Fort Memorial Library) at Miskatonic University.
[edit] References
- Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon, 1st ed., Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. ISBN 1-56184-129-3.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pearsall, "Miskatonic University", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 281.
- ^ Ibid, pp. 281–2. (List of professors.)
