Lewis Swift discovered IC 2059 = Sw. XI-70 on 29 Sep 1897 and reported "eeF; pL; R." There is nothing at or near his position but 16' S is this galaxy. This type of error is fairly common in Swift's last years and without any other reasonable candidates, the identification is fairly certain.

600/800mm - 24" (2/13/18): at 200x; moderately bright, elongated nearly 3:1 N-S, 1.0'x0.35', strong concentration with a small bright core and occasional sharp stellar nucleus. At 282x; core is elongated and occasional starp stellar nucleus still seen. A mag 13.5 star is 0.9' S of center, just off the south end of the galaxy.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb