Fiveasec: Five uncommon photos of five uncommon sisters: The Dionne Quintuplets

When the five Dionne sisters were born in Ontario in 1934, they became the first quintuplets known to survive infancy. Taking care of five babies, however, gave rise to a series of challenges and led to their parents giving custody of the five girls to the Red Cross within four months of their May 28 birthdate. The Red Cross said it would protect the girls for the next two years and cover all medical costs.

Shortly afterwards, however, the province of Ontario took over their guardianship and declared they would be wards of the province until they turned 18. Eventually — and sadly — the sisters were turned into a tourist attraction that attracted revenue for the government. They were raised in a nursery compound that included a playground that also served as a public observation area, complete with one-way screens.

Two times a day, sometimes three, the girls would be taken to the playground and up to 3,000 people a day would pay to watch the girls play. The sisters were responsible for attracting more than $50 million in tourism dollars in the province. Their lives were overly scrutinized and they were denied many of the simple pleasures children enjoy, such as a birthday party. The below story describing how the Dionne quintuplets were without a cake, presents and party as they turned three — and the other following historical events — come from a feature called The H Files, compiled by long-time Herald researcher/librarian Norma Marr and originally published in May 1998.