It is sometimes helpful to find background information on people when looking at historic newspapers. Here are a couple of databases that can be useful for background-
The library has many databases on a wide range of topics. For this particular class, you just need one database, called Historical Newspapers.
Within that, you will find many different newspapers covering the time period of your topics. Here's the link to the database-
Many popular newspapers, dating back as far as the 19th century. Access for each paper begins with the first issue published, end dates are varied and evolving.