E.E. Barnard discovered IC 454 = Sw. IX-16 on 23 Jan 1889 with the 12-inch refractor at Lick Observatory. He noted "a faint nebula, elongated with 13 mag star attached to end N.p." His rough RA (in his notebook) is about 24 seconds too large, but his small field sketch matches. The discovery was probably not communicated to Dreyer as Barnard isn't credited in the IC.

Lewis Swift independently found this galaxy on 27 Dec 1889 and simply noted "eeF; S; e diff." Swift's RA is 9 seconds too large and he received the credit in the IC. Howe measured an accurate position in 1898 and noted, "One or two stars are involved in this nebula."

600/800mm - 24" (2/7/16): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 NW-SE, 0.6'x0.3'. A star (mag 13.5-14?) is superimposed near the northwest end. Contains a slightly brighter nucleus, which is close southeast of the star. There may be one or two additional mag 15.5-16 star near the periphery. Since the galaxy appears to extend from the brighter star it has a comet-like appearance. Situated in a rich Milky Way star field.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb