A Michigan woman is hoping to keep the story of the Dionne Quintuplets alive through donating a large collection of artifacts to the museum in Callander, Ont.
The museum was shocked to receive two donations from Annette Kramer this year. After days of sifting through the artifacts, researching them and cataloging them, they’re now on display.
As careful as she can be, Natasha Wiatr, the curator of the Callander Bay Heritage Museum, set a pair of delicate dolls down on a table for visitors to enjoy.
“You see them and they’re just beautiful,” she said.
"They’re in very pristine condition. As a museum, we’re going to maintain them and continue to look after these items.”
The dolls are part of a larger collection from Dionne Quints collector Annette Kramer from Ypsilanti, MI.
“I thought that was a good place to protect it. I don’t have any children, so there is nobody who would be interested in it,” she said on a Facebook video call with CTV News.
“I did want to make sure that whatever happened, that it would be available for everyone to see.”
Over the years, Kramer learned more and more of the story of the five sisters: Annette, Yvonne, Cécile, Émilie and Marie. Then, she began to collect priceless memorabilia.
The sisters were born in Corbeil, near North Bay, Ont. on a small farm on May 28, 1934 and were the world's first surviving identical quintuplets. After four months with their family, custody was signed over to the Red Cross, who paid for their care and oversaw the building of a hospital for them.
Then the Ontario Government stepped in making them wards of the state. The government and those around them began to profit off the sisters by making them a significant tourist attraction.
For nine years, they lived at a tourist site called ‘Quintland.’ Millions of tourists travelled to northern Ontario just to get a glimpse of them. It’s estimated around $500 million in revenue was generated at the tourist site.
After a custody battle, the sisters moved back in with their parents. In 1998, the province apologized to the surviving siblings and a compensation settlement was agreed on.
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Émilie died in 1954, Marie died in and 1970 and Yvonne died in 2001. Annette and Cécile are still living, and celebrated their 89th birthday in the spring.
Wanting to preserve her collection of photos, keychains, dolls and other artifacts, Kramer contacted the museum informing it of the coming shipment.
She also made a trip up to the museum this summer with even more quintuplets memorabilia to donate.
“We’re just so grateful that Annette decided to trust us with her donation,” said Wiatr.
Perhaps the highlight of the collection are six rings: one which belonged to Annette Dionne, has a gem stone in the middle of it. The other five rings are part of a set. Each ring in the set has a different face of the siblings on them.
Wiatr told CTV News it is one of the only sets known to be in existence.
“They were produced very early on just after the girls were born before copyrights came into play,” she said.
“So once copyrights started to come into play, these rings couldn’t actually be produced anymore in a mass capacity.”
The museum already has the collection in a few cases for display.
Kramer is hoping visitors enjoy it and at the same time reflect on the sisters’ abnormal childhood.
“We definitely don’t want to see that happen again,” she said.
Kramer said hoping to come and visit the collection again in the near future.
For more information on the history of the Dionne Quints, visit the Dionne Quints Heritage Board’s website.
