Wilhelm Tempel discovered NGC 2835 on 13 Apr 1884. E.E. Barnard made an independent discovery in early 1885 while comet-seeking with his 5-inch refractor. In The Observatory 8, p123, he wrote "very faint, close between two bright stars, the n.p. of which is about 8 mag, the s.f. is about 9 mag. A 10th mag star is involved in the following edge of the nebula." His position (determined with the 6-inch equatorial) was accurate. After the discovery was announced in The Observatory, Wilhelm Tempel claimed an earlier discovery on 13 Apr 1884 in a note to his "New Nebulae" in AN 2660. Barnard was credited with the discovery in the NGC, as Dreyer apparently missed Tempel's comment.

Based on photographs taken with the Reynolds reflectors at the Helwan Observatory in 1919-20, NGC 2835 was described as "pF, 7'x4', E10°; beautiful 4-branched spiral with faint almost stellar nucleus and many almost stellar condensations along the arms."

400/500mm - 17.5" (2/28/87): very large, low surface brightness, slightly elongated, weak concentration. Bracketed by two mag 10 stars 2.8' W and 3.4' SE of center. Brightest in a small group (LGG 172), which includes NGC 2784, located 2.2° to the southwest.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb