Harriet L. Leete served as a nurse for the American Red Cross during World War I.

Leete was born in 1875 in Cleveland, Ohio. She was a 1901 graduate of Lakeside Training School for Nurses. From 1902-1906 Leete was head of men's surgical ward at Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland. As a nurse at Infant's Clinic of the Babies Dispensary in Cleveland from 1906-1917, she created well-baby programs.

In 1916 she was sent overseas in the first base hospital unit of the American Red Cross. Leete was assigned as the chief nurse of the American Red Cross Military Hospital No. 5, which was a portable tent hospital in Auteuil, France.

During World War I, Leete also worked for Red Cross Bureau of Tuberculosis in Europe and afterwards for Rockefeller Commission for the Prevention of Tuberculosis in conjunction with French hospitals. She was later named chief nurse of Department of Civil Affairs' Children's Bureau for Red Cross Commission in France where she developed the first child welfare courses of instruction in Paris. The courses included lectures on topics such as: motherhood, infant care, hygiene, and simple anatomy.

In 1919, Leete served as chief nurse for Balkan Commission in northern Siberia. After the war, she spent her career involved in nursing care for children in the United States. Leete died on 9 November, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York.

Harriet L. Leete's journal spans from January 1917 through December 1917. She writes about her work with the children's hospitals in France as well as the lectures which she created. While a large portion of the journal is dedicated to recording her sightseeing trips and her social obligations, she does include entries on her firsthand experiences with the war itself including events such as seeing bombs in the air and meeting with the families who struggled to survive while their husbands and fathers were at war.