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 (also fictional). 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.[1] Place-names based on the Algonquian languages are common throughout New England. Anthony Pearsall believes that Lovecraft based the name on the Housatonic River[2] 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.[3]
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.[4] 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" (1937).[5]
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.[6] The film uses Pasadena City College for interior scenes of the school.[7] 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.[8] 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 (and in Miskatonic University paraphernalia), 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.[9]
| Name | Department | Appearances |
|---|---|---|
| Dr. Henry Armitage | Chief Librarian | "The Dunwich Horror" |
| Professor Ferdinand C. Ashley | Ancient History | The Shadow Out of Time |
| Professor Atwood | Physics | At the Mountains of Madness |
| Professor Dexter | Zoology | The Whisperer in Darkness |
| Professor William Dyer | Geology | At the Mountains of Madness The Shadow Out of Time |
| Professor Ellery | Chemistry | "The Dreams in the Witch House" |
| Professor 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 Frank H. Pabodie | Engineering | At the Mountains of Madness |
| Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee | Political Economy | The Shadow Out of Time |
| Professor Wingate Peaslee | Psychology | The Shadow Out of Time |
| Professor Warren Rice | Languages | "The Dunwich Horror" |
| Professor Upham | Mathematics | "The Dreams in the Witch House" |
| "Old" Waldron | College doctor | "The Dreams in the Witch House" |
| Albert N. Wilmarth | English and Folklore | At the Mountains of Madness The Whisperer in Darkness |
Other authors' work
| Name | Department | Appearances |
|---|---|---|
| Tony Alwyn | Assistant Librarian | "Beyond the Threshold" |
| Dr. Andrew Armitage | Unstated | The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie |
| Dr. Dan Cain | Hospital | Bride of Re-Animator |
| Randolph Carter | Unstated | "The New Traveller's Almanac" Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. |
| Professor Alice Derleth | Occult Sciences | "The Collect Call of Cathulhu" |
| Dr. T.W. Erwin | Mathematics | "The Revolution's Fine" in The Avengers vol. 1, #83[10][11] |
| R. Gabor | University Press | The Fountains of Paradise chapter 11. |
| Dr. Graves | Hospital | Bride of Re-Animator |
| Dr. Carl Hill | Medical School | Re-Animator |
| Professor Madison Haringa | Ancient languages | The Damned Highway |
| Ms. Doris Horus | Librarian (as of June 26, 1969) | The Illuminatus! Trilogy |
| Professor Ted Klein | Unstated | "The Collect Call of Cathulhu" |
| Prof. Kynikos | Unstated | Gigabit Network Economics and Paradigm Shifts. IETF. doi:10.17487/RFC1216. RFC 1216. |
| Professor Lake | Ocean biology | The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu |
| Professor Seneca Lapham | Anthropology | The Lurker at the Threshold |
| Dr. Cyrus Llanfer | Chief Librarian (following Armitage) | "The Return of Hastur" |
| Professor Joshua N. Marsh | Anthropology | The Illuminatus! Trilogy |
| Professor Dominique 'Mo' O'Brien | Philosophy | The Atrocity Archives The Jennifer Morgue The Fuller Memorandum |
| Ward Phillips (I) | First President (late 17th century) | The Lurker at the Threshold |
| Ward Phillips (II) | Chief Librarian (early 19th century) | The Lurker at the Threshold |
| Professor Amos Piper | Anthropology | "The Shadow Out of Space" |
| Professor Laban Shrewsbury | Anthropology and philosophy | The Trail of Cthulhu |
| Professor William Wallace Spates | Zoology | Merkabah Rider: Once Upon A Time In The Weird West |
| Keith Brian Swerdlov | Archaeology | Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars |
| Ebenezer Tillinghast | Geology | "The Smoker from the Shadows" |
| Dr. Henry West | Necrobiology | Splatterhouse (2010 video game) |
| Nathaniel Pickman Wingate | Physics | Kamillions |
| Professor Brightmeer | Chemistry | Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land |
| Horatio Kharon | Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (based on The Man from Another Place) | |
| Harlan Ellison | Subnuclear Sciences | Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated series finale "Come Undone" |
| Dave DiMaio | Unstated | Trap Door (Home Repair is Homicide (10th book)) |
| Wilmarth Acker | Anthropology | Meddling Kids |
| Bill Newkirk | Unstated | "Mhuld'enda of the Deep" |
| Conrad Usry | Department of Physics, Chair | "Conrad Usry's Estate" |
| Professor Clinton Dempsey | Department of Psychology | "Conrad Usry's Estate" |
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 H. P. Lovecraftian Mythos references. The second was Miskatonic University (1995), a full-length book 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 adding 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 the Miskatonic University[12] website to reuse some of this material for their website. 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; Ex Luce Ad Tenebras" (Out Of Ignorance Into Wisdom; Out Of Light Into Darkness) to "Un Sacrificium Parvis ob Adagnitio" (A Small Sacrifice for Knowledge), and their mascot has been stated as everything from the Badger to the Fighting Cephalopods (as in, "Go ′Pods!").
Etymology
Lovecraft has declared that the word was "a jumble of Algonquian roots."[13]
Notes
- Lovecraft, Selected Letters III, p. 432.
- Pearsall, "Miskatonic River (Valley)", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 281.
- Harms, "Miskatonic River", The Cthulhiana Encyclopedia, p. 194.
- Ross Wells. 2002. EXploZion! iUniverse. p. 15
- Pearsall, "Miskatonic University", The Lovecraft Lexicon, p. 281.
- "Lights, Action, Horror at MHC". MHC News & Events. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2010-02-23.
- The Whisperer in Darkness. Dir. Sean Branney. 2011. DVD. Fungi, LLC, 2012. Special Features disc. "The Whisperer Behind the Scenes."
- Lovecraft, Howard P (1980). A History of The Necronomicon. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press. ISBN 978-0-318-04715-7. Archived from the original on June 3, 2008 – via Mythos Tomes.
- A History of The Necronomicon. ISBN 0-318-04715-2., pp. 281–2. (List of professors.)
- Avengers #83 reviewed on the Bronzeagebabies website.
- T.W. Erwin's profile at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
- "Miskatonic University". website. 1997. Retrieved 2010-02-23.
- Harms, Daniel (2008). The Cthulhu mythos encyclopedia (3rd ed.). Lake Orion, MI: Elder Signs Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-934501-05-4.
References
- Pearsall, Anthony B. (2005). The Lovecraft Lexicon (1st ed.). Tempe, AZ: New Falcon Pub. ISBN 978-1-56184-129-5.
