ic 2488 was discovered by nicolas-louis de lacaille on january 25, 1752, during his trip to south africa. he added it to his catalogue as lacaille iii.4. the cluster was also observed by james dunlop in 1826. he described it as "a faint cluster of [faint] stars of mixed magnitudes, with two or three stars pretty bright stars in it" and listed it as number 330 in his catalogue. he also noted that it could be 485 argus, described by bode. john louis emil dreyer added it in 1908 in the second index catalogue. for the catalogue, dreyer used the coordinates obtained by solon bailey, who used photographic plates with the 24 inches bruce telescope in arequipa.