Lewis Swift discovered NGC 5931 = Sw. VI-81, along with NGC 5940, 5941, 5942 and 5944, on 19 Apr 1887. He noted "eF; pL; R" and his position is just 4 sec of RA preceding CGCG 049-180 = PGC 55233. Barnard independently found this galaxy on 15 May 1890 while searching for the asteroid Eucharis and called it "vF, 13m neb, R, vgbM, 3/4' dia, a 11m star 1' p." Dreyer later assumed this was the same as Bigourdan's IC 1122 so didn't assign it a separate IC designation..

CGCG and MCG mislabel NGC 5931 as IC 1122. HyperLeda labels this galaxy as both NGC 5931 and IC 1122. But according to Thomson and Corwin, IC 1122 = LEDA 1326415 is a very small and faint galaxy exactly where Bigourdan placed it ~3' NW of NGC 5931. See Corwin's notes for more.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/7/94): faint, small, round, 30" diameter, almost even surface brightness. A mag 12 star is 1.5' W and a mag 11 star is 3.4' SSE of center. NGC 5940 lies 28' ESE.

600/800mm - 24" (6/13/15): fairly faint, fairly small, slightly elongated SW-NE, 0.5'x0.4', weak concentration. A mag 12 star is 1.9' W. Forms a pair with IC 1122 is 3' NW. Brightest in a group (WBL 568) that includes CGCG 049-170, -171, -172 and -173.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb