Truman Safford discovered NGC 5657 = Sf 16 = St XI-28 on 14 May 1866 with the 18.5" refractor at the Dearborn Observatory. His discovery list wasn't published until 1887, so he wasn't credited in the NGC, though his discoveries were added to an appendix in the NGC. Édouard Stephan independently found the galaxy on 5 Jun 1880, reported it in list XI and was credited with the discovery.

400/500mm - 17.5" (6/20/98): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated 2:1 NNW-SSE, 0.9'x0.4', moderate concentration with a small bright core. A mag 13.5 star lies 1.9' S. IC 4442 is located 28' WSW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb