Recently I made a list of 1,837 NGC and IC objects.
203 open clusters - all the NGC and IC OC brighter than magnitude 8.
124 globular clusters - all the NGC and IC GC.
237 nebulae - all the NGC and IC nebulae.
130 planetary nebulae - all the NGC and IC PN.
1,143 galaxies - all the NGC and IC Gxy brighter than magnitude 12.
Ten people found more than 24 of these objects.
William Herschel found 824 of the 1,837 objects (45%)
* John Herschel found 354 objects (19%)
* James Dunlop found 156 objects (8%)
Edward E Barnard found 51 objects (3%)
Lewis Swift found 42 objects
Charles Messier found 38 objects
Williamina Fleming found 36 objects (she looked at plates taken in the USA and in Peru)
* DeLisle Stewart found 29 objects
Pierre Mechain found 26 objects
* Nicolas Lacaille found 25 objects
* observed from the southern hemisphere
You can read more about these 10 amazing people here:
http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/obs_e.htm