It was discovered on 18 October 1939, by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä at Turku Observatory in Southwest Finland.

[10] In September 2002, a first rotational lightcurve of Malmquista was obtained from photometric observations by Stephen Brincat at Flarestar Observatory on the island of Malta.

Lightcurve analysis gave a well-defined rotation period of 14.077 hours with a brightness variation of 0.60 magnitude (U=3).

[9] In September 2012, observations at the Palomar Transient Factory, California, gave a period of 14.044 hours and an amplitude of 0.42 magnitude (U=2).

[7] In 2013, an international study modeled a lightcurve with a period of 14.0591 hours and found a spin axis of (5.0°, 80.0°) in ecliptic coordinates (λ, β) (U=n.a.).