At its board meeting on September 24, the Sippican Historical Society appointed two new directors: Robert Darnton and Helen Hills.
Robert Darnton was a professor of history at Princeton University for 39 years and then moved to Harvard University to become the Director of the Harvard University Library and a Professor of History for the past eight years. He recently retired and will be spending more time in Marion with his wife, where they live at 42 Main Street. He is also a Trustee of the New York Public Library. He is both a historian and a librarian and was a founder of the Digital Public Library of America, which proposes free open access to all library books. He was a speaker two times at the Sippican Historical Society’s lecture series.
Helen (Hiller) Hills was born in Marion into the Hiller family. She is also related to the Blankinships and Delanos, two other old Marion families. Although she majored in Spanish in college, she spent a large part of her career as a librarian. She is very interested in Marion history and antiques. She and her husband live in a stone house at 680 Front Street that was built in 1927 by her grandmother.