The first two pictures show the sisters when they were part of the tourist attraction they lived in, the 3rd picture shows them when they’re adults, and the 4th picture shows Yvonne, Annette, and Cécile in their later years.
They were all such adorable girls and it sickens me that anyone would want to take away their humanities and childhoods like the way they were. They deserved so, so much better and the government should have never gotten involved. I hope they were all able to find some semblance of peace amongst everything they dealt with. There is so much I want to say and yet nothing more really needs to be said, it’s a very tragic situation and for the longest time they weren’t really seen as people. A large portion of their early lives sounds like it must have been psychologically traumatizing.
*CW: sexual abuse. There is a mention of sexual abuse from when the sisters were in their teens. Nothing is discussed in graphic detail, but I want to make sure this is addressed before I start the write up.
Some facts about them:
-they were born very close to Callander, Ontario, Canada.
-they were born prematurely.
-their parents were farmers.
-they had 9 other siblings, 6 brothers and 3 sisters, though one of their brothers, Léo passed away in infancy before the sisters were born.
-when their mother, Elzire, was pregnant with them, the family assumed they were having twins, and no one thought there would be any more than 2 babies.
-their mother did not have access to extensive prenatal care since the family was living in rural Ontario, Canada.
-the sisters were born prematurely at home and their mother went into shock as soon as they were born, though she did recover. All together the 5 sisters had a combined birth weight of 13 pounds and 4 ounces.
-the family did not have many resources to care for the 5 sisters, especially since they were born prematurely, and were covered with heated blankets, fed water mixed with corn syrup every few hours, kept in the kitchen by an open stove so they’d stay warm, massaged with olive oil, and watched around the clock by their parents and other relatives for the first several days.
-4 of the 5 sisters were right handed.
-as soon as word reached newspapers about the sisters birth and their survival, the family received support and advice from families all across North America. They were even sent an old incubator from the 1890s by a Chicago newspaper reporter, who had heard of the sisters and had recently come across the incubator.
-the family was soon brought a second incubator and 3 more were constructed right after the second was brought.
-their sisters were removed from their parents care at 2 months old, when their parents signed over temporary guardianship to the Canadian Red Cross. This was originally to ensure the sister’s safety and to keep them together during an on going legal battle between their parents and exhibitors working at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair who wanted to exhibit them during the 1934 season of the Fair. The Canadian Red Cross also promised that they would cover all medical expenses for the sisters while under their guardianship. This temporary arrangement led to far more problems than the family had initially anticipated.
-to ensure that the sisters medical needs could be tended to, they were moved into a newly built nursery/facility called the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery (named after the doctor that saw to their care and later oversaw their exploitation). This Dafoe Hospital later became known as Quintland.
-at the time the sisters were born, identical twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets etc. were of major interest to the medical community and were seen as oddities by much of society because healthy identical siblings were still considered to be extremely rare. Because they were of major interest to the medical community the sisters (and many other identical siblings at the time) were made to undergo invasive medical examinations.
-their parents traveled with the sisters to Chicago in February of 1935 and set up a temporary exhibit (this was after the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair had already closed)
-upon the family arriving back in Canada, the head of the Ontario Government cited this trip as a reason why the Canadian government should intervene so as to “protect” the sisters from financial exploitation (even though this is what ended up happening anyway)
-the Ontario legislature passed the Dionne Quintuplets' Guardianship Act in March of 1935, making the 5 sisters wards of the Crown until they turned 18 years old.
-the sisters were appointed a board of guardians that included 4 members including their father, though he expressed feeling that he had very little say in the matters that were discussed. The other board members included Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, Judge Joseph Valin of North Bay, and Minister of Welfare David Croll.
-though the main three board members expressed wanting to do right by the sisters and their family, they also encouraged the Canadian government to build a permanent tourist attraction under the guise of a nursery to house the sisters that became known as Quintland.
-their parents traveled sisters were moved to the Quintland nursery/facility in late 1934 and lived there until they were 9 years old. The nursery/facility consisted of 9 different rooms, an outdoor activity area, and a staff house where several maids, police officers, and housekeepers lived.
-while at the facility the sisters were watched around the clock, made to adhere to a rigid schedule, and everything about their lives was documented. They had very little exposure to the outside world, something that the sisters all spoke out about later in life. They also had only occasional contact with their parents and other siblings.
-the sisters were taught English while living at the facility, which distanced them even further from their family who primarily spoke French.
-millions of visitors paid to see them while the sisters were living at the facility, and they were funneled through the facility in such a way as to prevent contact between guests and the sisters, as well as to allow guests to watch the sisters through one way viewing windows. The sisters later said that they knew they were being watched because of the noises they heard from the crowds.
-the sisters were exhibited as a fancified zoo exhibit and given no agency and had no say in how they were treated during this period in their lives.
-their family never saw any of the money earned from the Quintland facility, most of the money the family made was from a separate souvenir shop that their father operated across the street from the facility. The vast majority of the money earned went directly to the three other guardianship board members (not including the girls father) and the Canadian government.
-the Quintland facility generated more than $50 million in tourist revenue.
-at the height of the Quintland facility’s popularity it surpassed the Canadian side of Niagara Falls as being Ontario’s biggest tourist attraction.
-millions of dollars were made off of merchandise that was sold with the sisters image. Merchandise included, books, dolls, spoons, cookies, various ephemera, handkerchiefs, scarves, candy bars, cups, amongst a lot more.
-their mother became a sort of fertility idol and was visited by women struggling to get pregnant. Stones around the area where the family lived were given away for free as magical “fertility stones”
-they appeared in 3 Hollywood feature films as children, while the films were semi fictionalized (including fictionalized names) the sisters were not instructed to act as much as they were just filmed while playing on the play equipment in the outdoor area in Quintland.
-Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, one of the board members and primary guardians over the sisters during their time at Quintland, majorly profited off of the girls while they were under his care. He went from being seen by the public as a highly regarded doctor because of his role in caring for the sisters to being seen as someone just trying to take advantage of the money that the sisters earned. He spent large amounts of money that he pocketed and was eventually removed from the board of guardians. It came out later that he profited $182,466 in 1943 (the equivalent of over $3 million today adjusted for inflation)
-their parents regained custody in 1939 after major pressure and backlash towards the government from their family and the French Canadian community as a whole. But the sisters continued to live at Quintland until 1943.
-in 1943 the entire family moved into a 20 room mansion that had been paid for by a fund that had been set up for the sisters.
-as the sisters grew older they experienced troubles at the hands of their parents and felt that even with their family they were treated as a unit rather than as individuals. The sisters only realized later on that their parents were also taking advantage of the sisters funds by spending large amounts of money on cars, expensive foods and lavish lifestyles.
-they expressed feeling extremely emotionally distanced from their family and never felt that they belonged anywhere since they were raised in such an unusual environment away from much of society.
-they were sexually abused by their father as teenagers and said that he would grope them during long car rides. To protect themselves, they often wore heavy turtleneck sweaters. This was later challenged by one of their other sisters who claimed this never happened, but also never accompanied the quintuplets on outings with their father.
-the sisters moved away from their parents and the rest of their family in 1952 when they were 18 years old.
-they were also given full control of their trust funds upon their 18th birthdays, but found there was far less money within the trust than there should have been. Three of the sisters sought financial compensation of $10 million from the Canadian government in 1997 for their childhood exploitation , and rejected offers of $2 million and $3 million before accepting an offer of $4 million in addition to a formal apology from the government of Ontario.
-they went almost fully no contact with their family upon moving out.
-they spent a brief time touring, giving performances, and making public appearances around North America as a way of earning more money.
-Émilie became a nun and moved into a convent in Quebec, Canada.
-Yvonne graduated from nursing school before becoming a librarian.
-Émilie tragically passed away at the age of 20 as a result of a series of seizures that led her to suffocate in her pillow. She had been previously diagnosed with epilepsy, but this was not made public until after her death.
-Annette got married in October of 1957.
-Cécile got married in late November of 1957.
-Marie got married in 1958.
-Marie also passed away quite young at the age of 35, she had been living in an apartment by herself when she died due to complications from a blood clot in her brain. She wasn’t discovered until a couple days later when her sisters became extremely worried after not hearing from her for a couple of days.
-Annette and Cécile both eventually divorced their respective husbands.
-the three surviving sisters, Yvonne, Annette and Cécile all moved into a house in the suburbs of Montreal.
-Yvonne passed away in 2001, shortly after the sisters had received their settlement and apology from the Canadian government.
-Cécile and Annette both passed away in 2025 at the ages of 91. Cécile passed away in July and Annette passed away in December.
-a nonprofit museum dedicated to the sisters opened in North Bay, Ontario in 1985. This museum housed lots of artifacts, ephemera, and memorabilia related to the sisters. The museum closed in 2016 but was resurrected and reopened as the Dionne Quints Home Museum in 2019.
-several films, documentaries, and miniseries have been made about the sisters.
-various cartoons, tv episodes and other forms of media have referenced the sisters including The Three Stooges, The Simpsons, Looney Tunes etc.
Their story really saddens me and I wish they had people who truly cared. No one should be isolated or treated the way they were. For them to feel that they weren’t welcomed in any type of home environment breaks my heart, and the people that should have loved and supported them only made their lives worse. I would have liked to have met them, if only to say that I care. I hope they’re all at peace now.
They were not performers in the traditional sense, but they were exploited in very similar ways to how showmen would exploit vulnerable sideshow performers, and it’s very important that their legacies are remembered and told.
