Editing Arkham (section)

==In Lovecraft's stories==
Arkham is the home of Miskatonic University, which features prominently in many of Lovecraft's works. The institution finances the expeditions in the novellas, ''[[At the Mountains of Madness]]'' (1936) and ''[[The Shadow Out of Time]]'' (1936). [[The Dreams in the Witch House#Walter Gilman|Walter Gilman]], of "[[The Dreams in the Witch House]]" (1933), attends classes at the university. Other notable institutions in Arkham are the Arkham Historical Society and the Arkham [[sanatorium|Sanitarium]]. It is said in "[[Herbert West—Reanimator]]" that the town was devastated by a typhoid outbreak in 1905.

[[File:Crowninshield-Bentley House - Salem, Massachusetts.JPG|thumb|Lovecraft's Crowninshield House in ''[[The Thing on the Doorstep]]'' was modeled on the real ''[[Crowninshield-Bentley House]]'' in [[Salem, Massachusetts]].]]

Arkham's main newspaper is the ''Arkham Advertiser'', which has a circulation that reaches as far as [[Dunwich (Lovecraft)|Dunwich]].  In the 1880s, its newspaper is called the ''Arkham Gazette''.

Arkham's most notable characteristics are its [[gambrel]] roofs and the dark legends that have surrounded the city for centuries.

===Location===
The precise location of Arkham is unspecified, although it may be surmised from Lovecraft's stories to be some distance to the north of [[Boston]], probably in [[Essex County, Massachusetts]]. 

[[Will Murray (writer)|Will Murray]] places Arkham in central Massachusetts and suggests it is based on the village of [[Oakham, Massachusetts|Oakham]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murray |first=Will |date=October 1, 1986 |title=In Search of Arkham Country |url=https://archive.org/details/Lovecraft_Studies_13v05n02_1986-Fall_CosmicJukebox/page/n13/mode/2up?view=theater |journal=Lovecraft Studies |volume=Five |issue=2 |pages=54–67 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Robert D. Marten rejects this and equates Arkham with [[Salem, Massachusetts|Salem]], with its name coming from Arkwright, Rhode Island (now part of Fiskville).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marten |first=Robert D. |title=Dissecting Cthulhu: Essays on the Cthulhu Mythos |publisher=Miskatonic River Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780982181874 |editor-last=Joshi |editor-first=S. T. |location=Lakeland, FLA |pages=174–176 |chapter=Arkham Country: In Rescue of the Lost Searchers}}</ref>

[[August Derleth]] describes Arkham as "Lovecraft's own well-known, widely used place-name for legend-haunted Salem, Massachusetts",<ref>"About Arkham House" web site.</ref> and Lovecraft himself, in a letter to F. Lee Baldwin dated April 29, 1934, wrote that "[my] mental picture of Arkham is of a town something like Salem in atmosphere [and] style of houses, but more hilly [and] with a college (which Salem [lacks]) ... I place the town [and] the imaginary Miskatonic [River] somewhere north of Salem—perhaps near Manchester."<ref>Joshi & Schultz, pp. 6–7.</ref>

Arkham Sanitarium appears in the short story "[[The Thing on the Doorstep]]" and may have been inspired by the Danvers State Insane Asylum, ([[Danvers State Hospital]]) in Danvers, Massachusetts.<ref>Joseph Morales notes in his "A Short Tour of Lovecraftian New England" (web site) that Danvers "is mentioned in passing in some of Lovecraft's stories, and may also be the inspiration for HPL's fictional Arkham Sanitarium".</ref> Danvers State Hospital itself appears in Lovecraft's stories "[[Pickman's Model]]" and ''[[The Shadow over Innsmouth]]''.

===Miskatonic University===
Miskatonic University is a [[Fictional location|fictional university]] located in Arkham, near the banks of the (fictional) Miskatonic River. Lovecraft concocted the word ''Miskatonic'' as a mixture of root words from the [[Algonquian languages]],<ref>Lovecraft, ''Selected Letters III'', p. 432.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Harms |first=Daniel |title=The Cthulhu mythos encyclopedia |publisher=Elder Signs Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-934501-05-4 |edition=3rd |location=Lake Orion, MI |page=181}}</ref> the source of many place-names throughout [[New England]]. Anthony Pearsall believes the name is based on the [[Housatonic River]],<ref>Pearsall, "Miskatonic River (Valley)", ''The Lovecraft Lexicon'', p. 281.</ref> which flows from the [[Berkshires]] of [[Western Massachusetts]] and western [[Connecticut]] to [[Long Island Sound]].

After first appearing in [[H. P. Lovecraft]]'s 1922 story "[[Herbert West–Reanimator]]", the school was mentioned in numerous [[Cthulhu Mythos]] stories by Lovecraft and other writers. The story "[[The Dunwich Horror]]" implies that Miskatonic University is a elite university on par with [[Harvard University|Harvard]], and that Harvard and Miskatonic are the two most popular schools for the Massachusetts "Old Gentry". It is modeled on the northeastern [[Ivy League]] universities of Lovecraft's day, perhaps [[Brown University]] in his hometown [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]], which Lovecraft himself wished to attend.<ref>Ross Wells. 2002.
EXploZion!
iUniverse. p. 15</ref> Miskatonic's student body is implied to be all-male like northeastern universities of Lovecraft's time. The only female student mentioned is [[Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos#Waite, Asenath|Asenath Waite]] in "[[The Thing on the Doorstep]]" (1937).<ref>Pearsall, "Miskatonic University", ''The Lovecraft Lexicon'', p. 281.</ref> 

The university library is famous for its collection of [[List of Cthulhu Mythos books|occult books]], including one of the handful of genuine copies of the ''[[Necronomicon]]''.<ref>{{cite book|first=Howard P|last=Lovecraft|title=A History of The Necronomicon|url=http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/12/72/|publisher=Necronomicon Press|location=West Warwick, RI|isbn=978-0-318-04715-7|year=1980|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080603151040/http://www.mythostomes.com/content/view/12/72/|archive-date=June 3, 2008|url-status=dead|via=Mythos Tomes}}</ref> Other tomes include ''[[Unaussprechlichen Kulten]]'' and the fragmentary ''[[Cthulhu Mythos arcane literature#Book of Eibon|Book of Eibon]]''. Notable faculty members mentioned in Lovecraft's stories included doctors [[Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos#Armitage, Henry|Henry Armitage]] and [[Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos#Morgan, (Professor) Francis|Francis Morgan]] in ''The Dunwich Horror'', and [[Characters of the Cthulhu Mythos#Dyer, William|Professor William Dyer]] in ''At the Mountains of Madness''. Later authors would people the university with their own characters.