In the third book in the Sue Barton series, our heroine, fresh from nursing school, joins the Henry Street Nurses in New York City. When I originally read the book I had little interest in researching what realities the plot may have been based on. Now my curiosity regarding whether the Henry Street Settlement and founder Lillian Wald, who makes a brief but memorable appearance in the story, actually exist is quickly satisfied with a web search. Lillian Wald started the Visiting Nurses Service in 1893 after realizing there was a need for public health nursing and education within the New York tenement community. The group of nurses from the Henry Street house were well established by the time the fictional Sue Barton joined up in the 1930s. While there are happy endings to most of the cases Sue tends to, I would say that the book does not glamourize the conditions and hardships that these nurses had to contend with in providing care in impoverished households. The Visiting Nurse Service of New York still exists today and their web site, with its historical photo gallery, shows that they are well aware of their heritage.