Library receives two packages holding rare Quints material

by Keely Grasser

Sep 14, 2007

NORTH BAY – Two packages brought a history-filled surprise to the North Bay Public Library (NBPL) over the past three months.

These special deliveries brought artifacts from the lives of the five most famous sisters ever to hail from the Almaguin Highlands — the Dionne Quints.

In June, out of the blue came a package postmarked from a library in Ohio, explained Paul Walker, the NBPL’s chief executive officer.

The Peninsula Library’s Historical Society, in Ohio, had been cleaning up some nooks and crannies in the library and discovered a package of magazine and news clippings on the Dionne Quints. They estimated the package had not been touched in 70 years, keeping the clippings in mint condition, Walker said.

The cache includes some clippings from Ohio papers. Though the Quints were born here, our neighbours to the south held a special place for the fivesome, and newspapers often carried stories about them, Walker explained.

Then, a few weeks ago, another package came into the NBPL’s care. The second collection is from the estate of Leona Dubeau, who was a nurse to the girls in the 1940s.

Though she cared for them for only a year, when the girls were six, she held a very fond spot for the Quints, Walker said.

It showed in her collection, which contained a number of large, glossy photos, ones that would have been used by news agencies at the time, pictures of Dubeau with the Quints, advertising materials, personal notes and other unique items.
Among the most unique is a scrap of notepaper, on which Cecile Dionne practiced her handwriting, Walker said.

The NBPL was very excited to receive these items, Walker said.

They plan to display them at the library in October, after which they will catalogue the items. Walker said they also have plans to add the items to the Dionne Quintuplets Digitalization Project, a website that profiles materials held by the NBPL, the Dionne Quints museum, the North Bay Area Museum and the Callander Bay Heritage Museum.

The scanned collections include newspaper clippings, photos, advertisements, Quints memorabilia and other items.

“It caught the imagination of the world,” Walker said of the Quint’s birth.

He noted that thousands of people would come from all over to see the Quints during their early childhood.

“That’s the equivalent of having a Rolling Stones concert here in North Bay today,” he said.

And there’s still a lot of interest in the Quints today, he said. “It’s amazing after all these years, it’s still hot.”