William Herschel discovered NGC 2974 = H I-61 on 6 Jan 1785 (sweep 353) and logged "pB, vS, just following a star of about 9m." His position (5 sec of RA too large) and description matches CGCG 007-022. Dreyer measured an accurate micrometric position using the 72" on 4 Mar 1877.

Ormond Stone found the galaxy in 1886 at Leander McCormick Observatory (LM II-406) but made a 1 hour mistake in RA and Dreyer recatalogued it as NGC 2652.

300/350mm - 13.1" (4/29/84): moderately bright, fairly small, elongated 3:2 SW-NE, 1.4'x0.7', diffuse, even surface brightness. A mag 10 star is superimposed at the southwest end 0.7' from the center. Brightest in a group (LGG 179), though the other members (which include the double system Arp 253) lie over 1.5° to the south.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb