Lewis Swift discovered NGC 6319 = Sw. I-56 on 14 May 1885 and noted "vS; vF; lbM; nf of 2 [with NGC 6317]." His position is 25 seconds of time too small. Bigourdan measured a fairly accurate position on 7 Sep 1888, which Dreyer repeated in the IC 2 Notes. MCG fails to identify this galaxy as NGC 6319.

400/500mm - 17.5" (7/9/88): faint, small, round, bright core, faint stellar nucleus. Forms a pair with difficult NGC 6317 6.8' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb