John Herschel discovered NGC 2257 = h3057 on 30 Nov 1834 and recorded as "F; vL; R; gvlbM; 3'." On his third sweep he logged "pB; L; R; vgbM; resolvable; diam in RA = 17s of time." His position is accurate. NGC 2257 was identified by Gascoigne and Lynga as the "easternmost object to which membership of the Clouds may certainly be assigned".

300/350mm - 13.1" (2/18/04 - Costa Rica): fairly faint, fairly large, round, 1.5'-2' diameter, broad weak concentration, no resolution. An elongated group of a half-dozen mag 10-11 stars oriented NW-SE passes just north of the cluster. NGC 2257 is one of 15 bona-fide ancient GC's (over 10 billion years old) in the LMC and is situated at the northeast periphery of the cloud.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb