Royal H. Frost discovered IC 3896 = F. 1040 on two plates taken in May 1904 at Harvard's Arequipa station. He noted "bM, magn 14."

600/800mm - 24" (4/11/08 - Magellan Observatory, Australia): at 260x, this galaxy appeared fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 3:2 ~N-S, 1.2'x0.8'. Sharply concentrated with a very small, very bright core ~10" diameter. IC 3896A lies 20' NW and ESO 219-021, a large elongated galaxy, lies 54' E. This bright IC galaxy is located 1.7° SW of NGC 4945.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb