People/engineer

Isabel Little

Isabel Little (1883–1936), engineer, from United States. Linked to gold, silver, copper.

The lucky break

Came to Butte from Baltimore to study, switched from mathematics to mining engineering after fieldwork at the Ophir, Colusa Parrot and Neversweat mines, and graduated with honours in 1904.1

Legacy

Worked as an assayer and mining consultant and spoke openly about the hardships underground and miners' reluctance to admit women. She promoted women in mining engineering.1

Story cards

Drag to turn the globe

Where next

People

Partner ofClara ClarkTwo of Montana Tech's first women mining engineers.1

Places

Worked atButteShe switched from maths to mining after fieldwork at Butte mines.1

Sources

  1. 2025 Inductees from Mining's Past Mining Foundation of the Southwest

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).