Henry Armitage, PhD
Dr Henry Thadeus Armitage
Head librarian and specialist in medieval epigraphy, occultism, and linguistics. Took his D. Litt. at Cambridge, and has extensive contacts at that university. Retires in 1936 becoming Director Emeritus.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Armitage seems physically to be the old man he appears to be. Not athletic but still posessing an incredible vigor for a man his age. He seems full of energy and ready to go at a moments notice. He is surprisingly hard to keep up with as many a graduate student who has followed him into the field or town on "research" can attest to. When he is deep into a topic that interests him, he is tireless. After such bouts of near obsession, he seems diminished and a tired old man as one might expect.
Facial Features
Apparel & Accessories
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Armitage was born the middle son to a working class family in Sheffield England to George and Heloise Armitage. He had an older brother Thomas (deceased) and a younger brother Fredrick (3 years his junior). George worked for Blume Steel, a company that manufactured chisels and other high quality woodworking tools. The young Henry was precocious and was obviously a bright child. His parent were unable to afford private schooling for him but Henry still managed to secure a scholarship to Cambridge. Being a scholarship student from a middling family meant the Henry never quite fit in and was often picked on for his humble origins. It did not help that he was much smarter than most other students and had a facination with the esoteric.
Education
Doctorate of Literature from Cambridge, England where his disseration was "Occult Symbolism with Mideval Manscripts." His dissertation passed but his advisor was dissapointed that Armitage had not pursed more conventional topics as with his brilliant mind, he certainly would have had his pick of positions in England. As it was, Armitage's interest in the occult and his tendency to rush out to do field work in the middle of the semester and at times forgetting his students, meant he ultimately had to settle for a position as head librarian at an American institution - Miskatonic University.
Employment
It is rumored that Armitage knows every one of the 40,000 books in the Orne Library and has read most if not all of them. Armitage will neither confirm nor deny this statement when it is brought up but merely nods wryly seeming to at once confirm the story as well as denying it as obviously false. He has worked for the University since 1885 when he was hired to take over the library when the previous director, Malcom Mitchel, died suddenly in the library one evening.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Armitage has advanced the visibility and credibility of the Orne library since taking it over. He is an adept fundraiser as well as an academic in his own right. He has greatly increased the holdings and collections of the library during his time and the Orne is particularly regarded as one of the formost libraries for esoteric, occult, and mideval texts. Scholars and other interested parties come from around the world to consult works. The past several years, the increase in interest has led to an increasing number of non-scholars wanting to access the holdings. Armitage is not opposed to amateur researches but is always suspicious of them and will routinely deny access to particular works to those he deems to not be scholatic enough in their interests.
Failures & Embarrassments
His personal interests in the occult have at times not been received will with his contemporaries who find his ideas at time outlandish or at least lacking in scholastic rigor. His obsession with folk-lore and myth rather than more conventional channels of research prevented him from securing a prestigious and permanent position at an institution in England. At the edge of giving up on academia, when the offer from Miskatonic came to head the Orne Library, he jumped at it and never looked back.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
Vices & Personality flaws
Armitage is very self assured and self-reliant. Having never been really accepted by his peers at school, and then being somewhat shunned by his professional peers over his interests in the occult and esoteric subjects, he has made his own way in the world and finds he prefers that. This means while he will listen to advice, he ultimately will rely on his own council and make his decision without much consideration for outside opinion, suggestion, or advice.
His curiousity is also a potential Achilles Heel. He can be drawn into situations that he either ought to have known better or did know but just had to see anyhow. More than once this has gotten him into trouble, professional, personally, and even physically.
Personality Quirks
Henry constantly checks his pocketwatch even if he knows the time, has just checked it, or has no appointments.
Hygiene
Social
Contacts & Relations
Family Ties
Speech
Relationships
Shared Secrets
The Armitage Inquiry and the nature of the Mythos
Wealth & Financial state
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