Use the Merlin Library Catalog at http://laurel.lso.missouri.edu/ or Mobius Catalog at http://mobius.missouri.edu/screens/opacmenu.html to search for books on your topic.
You will need to search for historic figures both by subject and author to get all the books on your topic.
Jour as part of the call number indicates the book is located in the Journalism Library.
• Subject Headings for searching in Merlin or Mobius see examples below:
  • Journalism--History
  • Reporters and reporting--History
  • Newspapers--History
  • American Periodicals--History
  • Tarbell, Ida
  • Greeley, Horace
• 19th Century Periodical and Newspaper Indexes

Online Databases

• 19th Century Masterfile is an index to periodical articles appearing in British and American scholarly journals from 1802 to 1906. Indexing is by key word only, and there is no fulltext.   
• Early American Imprints Series I Evans (1639-1800) - Based on the historic "American Bibliography" by Charles Evans and enhanced by the "Supplement to Evans American Bibliography" by Roger Bristol, the collection includes all titles contained in the Evans microform editions - more than 36,000 items published in 17th and 18th century America and over 2.3 million images. All subjects that were part of public discussion during this period are included.
• American Periodical Series Online - American Periodical Series Online is a full-text collection of some 1000 magazines and journals published between 1741 and 1900. Titles include Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, the first American professional journals, and several consumer magazines still in publication, such as Vanity Fair, Harper's Magazine, and Ladies' Home Journal. The search interface allows you to search the complete text, including tables of contents. Articles are linked to the corresponding page images, allowing downloading and printing in PDF format
• America History & Life  - is a complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States
• and Canada from prehistory to the present.
• Arts & Humanities Citation Index - (subset of web of science) is multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It indexes 1,144 of the world’s leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.
• Cambridge Scientific Abstracts - Communication Abstracts 1977- current, ERIC 1966-Current, PAIS International 1972-Current, Sociological Abstracts 1963-Current,
• J-Stor - Indexes History journals with full text.
• Declassified Documents Reference System - Full-text access to declassified U.S. government documents from the years immediately following World War II to the present. These documents are also available on microfiche in the Government Documents Department, Ellis Library.
• Digital National Security Archive - The Digital National Security Archive "is a comprehensive collection of significant primary documents central to US foreign and military policy since 1945. The Archive is organized into dozens of topical collections, each containing government documents declassified under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."
• Dissertation Abstracts  - contains references and abstracts for doctoral dissertations from accredited American and Canadian, selected British and European universities, covering all academic subjects. Masters theses are also included from accredited North American Universities.
• Historical Abstracts - Historical coverage of the world from 1450 to the present
  (excluding the United States and Canada)
• National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)
  includes two databases: the Research Libraries Group Union Catalog of Archival and Mixed Materials, and the OCLC Manuscripts Database, a sub-set of WorldCat. Together these provide access to 1 million catalog records describing archival and manuscript collections in all subject areas, in public, research, and special libraries, and in museums, state archives, and historical societies throughout North America and around the world.
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries - Provides 80,000 pages of full-text letters, diaries and manuscripts by 632 North American women from colonial times to 1950. The database is full-text searchable and texts can also be browsed by author, source, year, place, personal event, or historical event.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Online Trial - The Oxford DNB contains 50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2000. The MU Libraries have complimentary online access until November 30, 2005.  
• Poole's Index to Periodical Literature--covers periodical literature from 1802-1906
• Project Muse - provides fulltext access to more than 100 scholarly journal titles from the Johns Hopkins University Press and other University presses. The journals cover the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Mathematics. Coverage generally begins with 1995.
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers - ProQuest Historical Newspapers will digitally reproduce every issue of the New York Times (1851-1999) and the Wall Street Journal (1889-1985) from cover-to-cover. It provides full page-image and full-text searching of these newspapers. Not all years have been digitized yet, so this is a growing collection. To impose a year or date limit on a search in this database, please follow these instructions, http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/brekhusr/PHNworkaround.htm.
• Reader's Guide Retrospective - Readers' Guide Retrospective is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America.
• UM Digital Library digitized Missouri materials  
• U.S. Statutes at Large - is part of the Congressional Universe database. Full-text access to the laws of the United States from 1789 to the present. Includes public laws, private laws, concurrent resolutions, presidential proclamations, treaties with foreign nations (through 1849) and all treaties with Native American tribes. Allows the user to retrieve an original law and all its amendments.

  
  Ellis Library has a large number of 19th Century periodicals and journals such as:
  Atlantic Monthly, Ladies' Home Journal, Collier's, The Nation.

Poole's Index to Periodical Literature - A 13 .P7--Ellis Reference Alcove 2 and Special Collections
Reading Room
• Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide--covers periodical literature from 1890-1901
  A 13 .R496--Ellis Reference Index Table 12
• New York Times Index--indexes the microfilm New York Times
  Newspaper. 1856-present
  A 121 .N44--Ellis Reference Alcove 1
  (back side of Alcove)

  Newspapers in Microfilm
  Located in Special Collections Department Ellis Library 4th Floor West.
  Microfilm, including the film for the New York Times and other newspapers, is available
  all the hours Ellis Library is open. Microfilm Reader/Printers are located on the 4th Floor.
  The Special Collections office is open:
  M-Th. 8am-9:30pm.
  Fri. 8-5. Sat. 10am-5pm.
  Sun. Noon-5pm and 6:30pm-9:30pm.

  Other Indexes
  Social Science and Humanities Indexes are available at Ellis Library Reference Area.
  Historical Abstracts(CD)
  America History and Life(CD)
  Journalism Library Web Page - http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/journalism/
  Look on the main page and click on "History" for some useful webpages.

• Western Historical Manuscripts Collection - has the women and the media collection. Good source for primary materials.