William Herschel discovered NGC 4314 = H I-76 = h1204 = Sf 20 on 13 Mar 1785 (sweep 387) and recorded "cB, L, E." His position matches UGC 7443. Truman Safford rediscovered this galaxy on 16 May 1886 with the 18.5" Clark refractor at the Dearborn Observatory, though noted "vB, probably well known."

400/500mm - 17.5" (4/25/98): fairly bright, fairly large, elongated ~3:1 NNW-SSE, ~3'x1' [prominent central bar]. The halo fades at the tips and rises fairly abruptly to an oval core. A mag 13 star is at the northwest tip and a mag 14/15 star is embedded on the southeast side. The observation was hampered by poor transparency and the faint outer halo of this barred spiral was not seen.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb