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 serial 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. Miskatonic University is evidently modeled on Ivy League institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, Dartmouth 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). 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 Miskatonic University differ in whether mystical and Mythos studies are covert or overt. In the first interpretation, which follows Lovecraftian literary traditions, Miskatonic University 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 Miskatonic University paraphernalia), Mythos and strange elements are overtly displayed at Miskatonic University and form part of its campus cultural identity.