William Henry Finlay discovered IC 5267 on 26 Dec 1886 with either the 6-inch or 7-inch refractor at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. Lewis Swift independently discovered the galaxy on 23 Sep 1897 and logged "pB; S; R; mbM." His position was 3.5' too far south, but accurate in RA. Finlay's discovery (with no description) wasn't published until 1898 and he credited Swift in the table of nebulae (MNRAS 58, 329). Dreyer gave Finlay primary credit in the IC.

400/500mm - 18" (11/14/09): fairly bright, fairly large, elongated 4:3 or 3:2 NNW-SSE. Contains a relatively large, 1' bright core that gradually increases to a faint stellar nucleus. A much fainter halo fades gradually into the background, but appears to extend along the major axis for roughly 2.5'x1.7'. NGC 7412 lies 48' NNW and IC 5267A = ESO 290-026 is 14' WSW. This is one of the brighter IC galaxies that was missed by John Herschel.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb