William Herschel discovered IC 257 = Sw. VIII-3 on 11 Dec 1786 (sweep 645) and recorded "a few very small stars mixed with very faint seeming nebulosity, in the direction of the meridian [north-south]; most probably only a patch." He didn't assign this nebula an internal discovery number or H-designation due to his uncertainty so it was never published, but his position is just 2' north of IC 257 and the orientation of the galaxy (PA 155°) is a reasonable match with his description. Steinicke confirms this observation (email April 2015).

Lewis Swift rediscovered this galaxy on 6 Sep 1888 and recorded Sw. VIII-3 (later IC 257) as "eF; pS; R; in vacancy; v diff. 2nd of 3 [with IC 256 and IC 260]." Swift, of course, is credited in the IC. MCG misidentifies this galaxy as IC 256.

400/500mm - 17.5" (10/24/87): faint, fairly small, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE, 0.8'x0.5'. The slightly brighter core contains a quasi-stellar nucleus at moments. A trio of very faint galaxies lies close SW (including IC 256?). IC 260 lies 13' E.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb