Five Dionne Quintuplets Paper Dolls with Costumes and Three Original 1937 Photographs of Dafoe Hospital Grounds and Residence

Item Details

1937

A remarkable Depression-era group centered on the Dionne Quintuplets, born in 1934 and turned into a global media phenomenon. The collection includes five paper dolls, each representing one of the sisters—Annette, Cécile, Émilie, Marie, and Yvonne—with identifiable initials. Accompanying the dolls are several outfits printed in period style with original folding tabs intact.

Also included are four black-and-white vernacular photographs dated June 22, 1937, showing crowds waiting to view the quintuplets, the Dafoe Nursery and Hospital grounds, and a signed image of a man holding “stones from Dafoe Hospital Grounds.” Two photos have detailed handwritten captions describing visiting hours and the original family home.

This collection highlights both the commercialization of the sisters as child celebrities and the broader social history of spectacle tourism, state custody, and mass media in 1930s North America