University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 5, No. 1/1995
ALUMNI PROFILE: Stepping into history

     By day, she is Miss Julia Jefferson, a Civil War belle in a
hoopskirt who strolls the grounds of Fort Delaware, nodding
genteelly to all she meets. Miss Jefferson is a woman with a
cause-the safety and comfort of the 12,000-some prisoners of war
being held in the fort on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River.
     Underneath her calm exterior is an outspoken advocate of
prisoners' rights who doesn't hesitate to take on the fort's
artillery commander, Capt. Moltkowski, and badger him about
medicines, mail delivery, sleeping quarters and prisoner
discipline.
     By night, she is Laura Markey Mackie, Delaware '92, of New
Castle, Del., single mother, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, riding
the road in her Subaru, chauffeuring two sons and two daughters
to soccer and hockey games and gymnastics.
     As the lead interpreter in the living history presentations
at Fort Delaware, Mackie assumes Miss Jefferson's identity.
     Their lives are a study in contrast, yet the two women live
on the same land in New Castle, albeit more than l00 years apart.
Mackie's modern, two-story home is situated in Jefferson Farms,
named for its original owner, Elihu Jefferson, a prominent grain
merchant and Miss Jefferson's father.
     Ironically, Mackie did not discover the similarity in
residency until after she started reenacting Miss Jefferson
during the summer months at Fort Delaware. As an historical
interpreter, her job is not just to present facts but to help
visitors process and understand history as well.
     Reenactors, she said, are sticklers for details and, as she
became involved in the living history presentations, she searched
diligently for a real-life female character associated with the
fort during its heyday. Rather than assume the anonymous role of
a cook or maid, Mackie searched until she uncovered actual
letters written to Miss Jefferson by Confederate prisoners.
     No one knows if it was her father's affluence or his
political connections that came into play, but somehow, two weeks
after the battle of Gettysburg, Miss Jefferson wangled a
permanent pass to visit the fort at her pleasure. She took her
mission seriously and never visited empty-handed, always bringing
along blankets, fresh fruit and vegetables or clothing for the
prisoners.
     The Historical Society of Delaware has a collection of
more than 30 letters written to Miss Jefferson by prisoners at
Fort Delaware. Complete strangers would write, requesting food,
clothing, tobacco or stamps.
     Just as her persona changes from day to night, Mackie's
job fluctuates with the seasons. From late spring to early fall,
she works at Fort Delaware for the Delaware Department of Parks
and Recreation, a division of the Department of Natural Resources
and Environmental Control.
     During the winter, she works with the Shoreline
Artifact Project funded by the Delaware Cultural Heritage
Commission.
     As she inventories artifacts from the fort, she carefully
cleans seven original wooden gun carriages found on the
island-the only ones of their kind still in existence.
     Waterlogged when they were found, the carriages are now
stored in five-foot-tall water tanks. As Mackie meticulously
picks fungus off with a toothbrush and dental pick, she has lots
of time to visualize what Fort Delaware must have been like
during the Civil War and to think up new and interesting ideas
for the tourist season.
     Mackie enrolled in the University in 1979. Married in her
junior year, she continued to take classes part time. After her
fourth child arrived, she decided to come back full time. Her
degree is in history with a concentration in anthropology.
     "It wasn't unusual for me to sit in the back of a Smith Hall
lecture room with a toddler playing with Legos," she says. "We
used to joke that our youngest went to a University before she
went to preschool."
     The influence can still be seen. Recently, when a bully
called that child a name, she responded by saying proudly, "Oh,
yeah? Well, I bet you don't even know what an artifact is!"
                                             -Beth Thomas
     
     Shortly after this article was written, Mackie was appointed
director of Newark's Iron Hill Museum of Natural History. She is
busy planning an expanded outreach program for elementary and
middle school students.