It was discovered on 20 November 1965, by astronomers of the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory in the United States.
It is also characterized as a common S-type asteroid in the SDSS-MFB (Masi Foglia Binzel) taxonomy.
[3][b] In April 2012, a rotational lightcurve of Whitford was obtained from photometric observations in the R-band by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in California.
[3] This minor planet was named after American physicist and astronomer Albert Whitford (1905–2002), who was a pioneer in photoelectric photometry.
Whitford was also a director at the Washburn and Lick observatories, as well as a former president of the American Astronomical Society.