Hay River (Apr 03/06) - Lori Uhlenberg has so many dolls she has to move them in and out of her Hay River home.

"I don't have room for them all," explains the 78-year-old collector. "I rotate them."

Lori Uhlenberg of Hay River displays some of the hundreds of dolls she has collected over the past three decades. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Most of her dolls are kept in storage, including her more valuable antiques.

Uhlenberg enjoys having dolls around her home. "It gives you a sense of different cultures, and the work and artistry that went into the dolls years ago. It's not something people can pick up and do any more."

She has been collecting dolls for about 30 years, and estimates she has about 700.

The retired tutor doesn't really have any favourites among her collection.

"Mind you, I like Wimpy and I like Popeye," referring to two dolls based on cartoon characters.

Some of her many Barbie dolls have never been out of the packaging they were sold in, she says. "They're not play dolls. They're collectible dolls."

The collection began in the mid-1970s when her late husband, Herb, happened to see an old doll in pieces at the dump and brought it home to her.

"He said, ‘I thought maybe you could do something with this,'" she recalls. "That's what started it off."

It was an Armand doll, which was made in France sometime in the 1800s.

Uhlenberg now has a wide variety of dolls, including the traditional dolls handcrafted in various Northern communities. She even has one Barbie dressed in a Northern costume made by a Hay River craftsperson. The collection includes Inuit packing dolls, Cabbage Patch originals and Chinese dolls. They are made of various material - plastic, porcelain, wood and cloth.

The dolls come from countries around the world.

Uhlenberg says she did not have many dolls growing up in Drumheller, Alta.

"When I was a child, to have a doll was very precious because it was the Depression," she says.

Uhlenberg, who has lived in Hay River since 1971, says it's possible her hobby is a result of her lack of dolls as a child.

"That could be," she says. "I think I was the only daughter in the family who liked dolls, but we couldn't afford dolls."

Ironically, Uhlenberg says her own two daughters are not interested in dolls.

"Neither one wants this collection," she says. "They couldn't care less about dolls."