It was discovered on 26 October 1984, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona.
[3] Gladman is not far from a prominent Kirkwood gap at 2.5 AU, which corresponds to a 3:1 orbital resonance with the gas giant Jupiter, where the Alinda asteroid are located.
[11] Gladman has been characterized as a stony S-type asteroid in the Tholen-like taxonomy of the Small Solar System Objects Spectroscopic Survey (S3OS2).
[8][10][12] In October 2014, observations by French amateur astronomer Laurent Bernasconi gave a fragmentary lightcurve with a rotation period of 15 hours and brightness variation of 0.21 magnitude (U=1+).
Subsequent photometric observations by James W. Brinsfield at the Via Capote Observatory (G69) in October 2010, and by astronomers at the Palomar Transient Factory in March 2014, gave an improved period of 17.3 (best) and 16.1956 hours with a brightness amplitude of 0.50 and 0.25, respectively (U=2/2).