What specific universities and hospitals are named in declassified MK‑Ultra subproject lists?
Executive summary
Declassified MK‑Ultra materials and contemporary reporting name a number of specific universities and hospitals that received CIA funds or hosted subprojects, but the surviving records are fragmentary and do not enumerate every participant; prominent institutions cited across declassified documents and reputable reporting include Georgetown University Hospital/Medical School, Stanford University (and its medical school), McGill University, Pennsylvania State University, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Rutgers, University of Illinois, and several state psychiatric hospitals (e.g., Iowa State/Ionia) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].
1. Named universities appearing in declassified subproject materials
The declassified files and contemporaneous summaries explicitly reference multiple named universities: Georgetown University (including Georgetown University Hospital and its medical school) is repeatedly identified in internal memoranda and reporting as a cover site and recipient of CIA-funded construction through the Geschikter fund [1][8]; Stanford University’s medical school appears in the university archives’ Project MKULTRA collection documenting invoices and memoranda for several subprojects [2]; McGill University is named in surviving reporting as subproject 68 and is the best‑known Canadian academic site cited in later accounts [3]; other U.S. universities named across declassified material or secondary accounts include Cornell, Rutgers, the University of Illinois, and the University of Oklahoma [1][6].
2. Named hospitals, clinics and state psychiatric institutions
Hospital and clinic names surface in the record as well: Georgetown University Hospital is identified in a Top Secret memo proposing cover for MKULTRA work [1]; the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park is cited in anecdotal and investigatory sources as the location where author Ken Kesey and researchers like Robert Hyde encountered LSD supplied via CIA channels [4][1]; Boston Psychopathic Hospital (associated references to Hyde and Massachusetts mental health facilities), Iowa State Hospital and Ionia State Hospital in Michigan appear in subproject indexes and compilations cited in archival extracts [9][10][5].
3. Notable subproject examples that name institutions
Several individual subprojects surviving in declassified caches explicitly tie work to institutions: Subproject 35 is associated with Georgetown University Hospital in a November 1954 top‑secret memorandum [1]; subproject 68 is commonly associated with McGill [3]; subproject listings and indexes recovered in the CIA reading room and Senate appendices connect Subproject 139 (“Bird Disease Studies”) with Pennsylvania State University and identify MKOFTEN animal/drug testing projects that routed through university and laboratory partners [4][6]. Stanford’s archive holdings show paperwork for subprojects numbered 2, 56, 70–72, 85 and 86 tied to its medical school [2].
4. Scale, gaps and why no definitive roster exists in surviving declassified lists
The surviving documentation repeatedly underscores scale—roughly 80 institutions, 44 colleges/universities and about a dozen hospitals or clinics are referenced in aggregate summaries of recovered material—but also explains why an exhaustive, unambiguous public roster is unavailable: Director Helms ordered most MK‑Ultra files destroyed in 1973, the Senate inquiries relied on the limited cache then recovered, and later Freedom of Information releases produce fragmentary lists and memos rather than a single, definitive master list [4][7][6]. Declassified compilations and secondary researchers therefore name many but not all participants and sometimes rely on invoices, correspondence or the testimony of participants—sources that can leave institutional involvement partially obscured [5][11].
5. Assessment and alternative readings
Taken together, the declassified subproject documents and reputable reporting provide firm evidence that specific universities (Georgetown, Stanford, McGill, Penn State, Cornell, Rutgers, Illinois, among others) and named hospitals/state psychiatric facilities (Georgetown University Hospital, Veterans Administration Hospital Menlo Park, Boston Psychopathic Hospital, Iowa State/Ionia state hospitals) were involved in one or more MK‑Ultra subprojects, but the record is incomplete and scholars warn against assuming the fragmentary lists capture every site or the full nature of each institution’s awareness or consent [1][2][3][6][7]. Where definitive naming appears in the sources, it is cited above; where the sources are silent, the surviving documents do not permit confident assertions.