It was discovered on 24 February 1786 by German-British astronomer William Herschel.

[5] It is the lead member of the NGC 5746 Group of galaxies (also known as LGG 386), itself one of the Virgo III Groups strung out to the east of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies.

As with the former, it has a box-shaped bulge that is actually a bar seen from one side[7] and a currently modest star formation activity.

[8] Investigations with the help of the x-ray space telescope Chandra seemed to detect a large cloud of gas surrounding NGC 5746 that was thought to be remnant gas of its formation in the process of being accreted;[9] however, later research has shown that cloud does not actually exist.

[11] One supernova has been observed in NGC 5746: SN 1983P (type Ia, mag.