Miskatonic University / UNIVERSITY

Miskatonic University is located in Arkham, North America, Earth in what was once Essex County in Massachusetts. Named for the Miskatonic River, the origins of this university remain shrouded in obscurity. One history holds that this school began as the Salem Academy in 1690, which moved to Arkham in 1776 and renamed itself as the Miskatonic Liberal Seminary. Another states that “the College of the Miskatonick Vallye”, or Arkham College, was founded in 1690 and reinvigorated in 1765 with a bequest from Jeremiah Orne, one of Arkham’s foremost merchants. (It is possible that this college merged with the Salem Academy in 1776, thus accounting for the discrepancy).

At first, classes were held in only one building, but Miskatonic College grew so quickly that soon after the Revolutionary War, the people of Arkham gave their former town common to the school in recognition of its achievements. In 1861, Miskatonic College combined with Elder Faith Seminary to become a university, and, in 1880, its world-famous medical school opened.

Over the years, Miskatonic University gained a great deal of prestige, and was often considered to be one of the Ivy League schools. Right up until the ‘accident’, Miskatonic remained at the fore in scholarship and research. Its expeditions into the far parts of the world, such as the Pabodie expediton of 1931 and the later Austalian excavations of 1935, though not entirely successful, had earned the university acclaim from the scientific community. If not for the disaster at the Nathaniel Derby Pickman Nuclear Laboratory, Miskatonic would likely have continued to be a star of academia even to this day.

Now in the 30th century, the land surrounding the once famed university has recovered from its deadly radioactivity. A descendant of the last chief librarian has put forth the credits to reestablish the school as center of research in jump point physics, astrobiology, xeno-archeology, and the planetary sciences. This Dr. Todd Marsh claims the stars are right for the reanimation of the storied college.