Harriet L. Leete and Major George de Tarnowsky, photographed at Auteuil in 1918, War Department. Title: 111-SC-14917, National Archives and Records Administration.

Harriet L. Leete (December 14, 1871 — November 19, 1927) was an American Red Cross nurse during World War I.

Early life

Leete was born in Jamestown, New York, the daughter of Franklin Leet and Louise Jones Leet. Her father (who spelled his name without a final E) was a farmer and a justice of the peace.[1]

Career

Before World War I, Leete was superintendent of nurses at the Babies' Dispensary and Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, and a nationally recognized expert on infant care.[2][3]

Leete was a charter member of the National Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service.[4] In 1917, she was in the first hospital unit to sail from the United States for France, as a member of the Lakeside Base Hospital Unit of Cleveland. In Paris she worked with the Red Cross Children's Bureau.[5] She was chief nurse at the American Red Cross Hospital Number 5, at Auteuil. She went to work for the Balkan Commission, as Chief Nurse for northern Serbia,[6] based at Belgrade Hospital.[7] She contracted typhus at Palanka [8] and returned to the United States in July 1919.[9] The Serbian government awarded Leete the Order of St. Sava for her wartime efforts.[4]

After the war, she was field director of the American Child Hygiene Association,[10] which involved extensive travel and lecturing.[11] "This twentieth century does belong to the child," she wrote, "and unless we as nurses — not just public health nurses, but all nurses — meet this challenge... we shall be liable to the reproach of those who follow us."[12] From 1925 until her death, she was superintendent at a convalescent home in Far Rockaway, New York.[13]

Personal life

Leete died in 1927, aged 56 years, at a hospital on Long Island, from complications after an ear infection.[13]

References

  1. ↑ William Richard Cutter, ed. Genealogical and Family History of Western New York (Lewis Historical Publishing 1912): 89.
  2. ↑ "Leader in Baby Conservation" Washington Times (November 16, 1913): 11. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  3. ↑ "Baby Scientists to Gather Here" Washington Herald (November 10, 1913): 2. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  4. 1 2 "The Passing of Harriet L. Leete" American Journal of Nursing (January 1928): 71-72.
  5. ↑ "Women in the War" Wilmington Morning Star (April 28, 1918): 11. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  6. ↑ "Nursing Plans for the Balkans" Red Cross Bulletin (February 17, 1919): 26.
  7. ↑ Clara D. Noyes, "The Red Cross" American Journal of Nursing (March 1919): 447.
  8. ↑ It is known as Smederevska Palanka in modern Serbia.
  9. ↑ American Red Cross National Nursing Service,History of American Red Cross Nursing (Macmillan 1922): 1118-1120.
  10. ↑ "Baltimorean Makes Report; Miss Harriet L. Leete Gives Survey of Child Hygiene" Baltimore Sun (November 3, 1921): 2. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  11. ↑ K. Clements, The Life of Herbert Hoover: Imperfect Visionary, 1918–1928 (Springer 2010): 168. ISBN 9780230107908
  12. ↑ Arlene W. Keeling, "Nurses, Babies, and Public Health" in Arlene W. Keeling, John C. Kirchgessner, Michelle C. Hehman, eds., History of Professional Nursing in the United States: Toward a Culture of Health (Springer 2017): 216-217. ISBN 9780826133137
  13. 1 2 "Miss Harriet L. Leete" New York Times (November 21, 1927): 23.
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