The Horror in the Museum

"The Horror in the Museum" is a short story ghostwritten by H. P. Lovecraft for Somerville, Massachusetts, writer Hazel Heald in October 1932, published in Weird Tales in July 1933.

"The Horror in the Museum"
Short story by H. P. Lovecraft
Artwork by Borja Pindado influenced by "The Horror in the Museum".
Text available at Wikisource
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror short story
Publication
Published in	Weird Tales
Media type	Print (magazine)
Publication date	July 1933

Plot

The tale concerns the relationship between Stephen Jones and George Rogers, the owner of a private wax museum specialising in the grotesque in Southwark, London who has been dismissed from Madame Tussauds. Initially cordial, it degenerates as Jones first mocks the self-important Rogers, then comes to suspect that he is demented with his "wild tales and suggestions of rites and sacrifices to nameless elder gods". Jones takes up Rogers's standing offer to spend a night in the museum and is attacked by his host, who is in turn killed by the entity Rhan-Tegoth that he has been making sacrifices to, and ends up becoming part of the display. It is implied that his assistant shot Rhan-Tegoth to make him part of said display.^{[clarification needed]}

Authorship and publication

"The Horror in the Museum" is one of five stories Lovecraft "revised" for Heald. Heald had been introduced to Lovecraft by his friend Muriel E. Eddy (spouse of Clifford Martin Eddy Jr.). Starting in 1965, Lovecraft's letters were published, including one to Clark Ashton Smith on June 14, 1933, in which Lovecraft claimed that this story was mostly his own work: "Yes—the waxwork museum story is mostly my own; entirely so in wording, & also so far as concerns the background of Alaskan archaeology & antique horror. You will find Tsathoggua mentioned."^[1]

"The Horror in the Museum" was first published in volume 22, number 1 of Weird Tales in July 1933 (credited to Heald). The story has been reprinted in several collections, such as The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions (1970) and the inaugural edition of the Pan Book of Horror Stories (1959).^[2][3]