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.