James Dunlop discovered IC 2714 = D 281 on 27 Apr 1826 (first night he recorded objects) with his 9-inch reflector at Parramatta, NSW. He described a "cluster of very small stars, a little elongated preceding and following, about 10' diameter; the stars are congregated towards the centre, a pretty bright star south, and a double star south following this." His position was ~7' too far north, within his usual erros.

Solon Bailey independently discovered the cluster in 1896 on a photographic plate using a 1-inch f/13 Cook lens at the Arequipa station. The discovery was reported in "A Catalogue of Bright Clusters and Nebulae" (Annals of Harvard College Observatory, Vol LX, No. VIII) and Bailey was credited with the discovery in the IC. His description reads "cluster, pretty compressed." In 1927, Harry Wood reported that based on a Franklin-Adams plate, the cluster doesn't agree in appearance with Bailey's description. "This cluster is an open large cluster (12' in diameter) and is the same magnitude and is of the () Carinae type. It lies immediately north of CPD -62 1953." In the same note he described nearby cluster Cr 246.

600/800mm - 24" (4/11/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): this was a surprisingly appealing cluster, roughly 13' in diameter and framed nicely in the 30' field at 200x in the 13mm Ethos. The stars are fairly uniform in brightness with a large number of mag 11-12.5 stars and they give the impression of being connected in numerous loops and chains over the entire cluster. The cluster is not concentrated, though there are several mag 11 stars near the center and a close double. Mel 105 is located 48' SSE.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb