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"The Horror in the Museum" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald.
Plot[]
The tale concerns the relationship between Stephen Jones and George Rogers, the owner of a private wax museum specialising in the grotesque. Initially cordial, it degenerates as Jones first mocks 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 displays.
Characters[]
- Stephen Jones
- George Rogers, owner and curator of the titular wax museum.
- Orabona, Rogers' assistant.
Continuity[]
- The creature killed by Rogers of which he is wearing its hide is a Dimensional Shambler. (EXP: Malleus Monstrorum)
Behind the Mythos[]
H. P. Lovecraft ghostwrote "The Horror in the Museum" for Somerville, MA writer Hazel Heald in October 1932, one of five which he did so. Heald had been introduced to Lovecraft by his Providence friend Muriel E. Eddy, the wife of C. M. Eddy, Jr.
First printed in the July 1933 edition of Weird Tales, the story has been reprinted in several collections, such as The Horror in the Museum and Other Revisions.