Q. Hi, is there a good tool to look up old newspaper articles as early as the 1850s?

Chronicling America, located here: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/, has a number of papers from that era.  Also, the New York Times database (http://search.proquest.com.leo.lib.unomaha.edu/hnpnewyorktimes?accountid=14692), which can be accessed through campus computers or at home with your student ID, goes back to 1851.