Who discovered the brightest NGC and IC objects in the whole sky?
1 William Herschel at Datchet, Clay Hall and Slough in the UK
2 John Herschel at Slough and the Cape, South Africa
3 James Dunlop at Parramatta, NSW
4 Edward E Barnard mainly at Nashville, TN
5 Lewis Swift mainly at Echo Mountain near Los Angeles, CA
6 Charles Messier in Paris
7 DeLisle Stewart at Arequipa, Peru
8 Williamina Fleming using photographic plates from Arequipa, Peru and other places
9 Pierre Mechain in Paris
10 Nicolas Lacaille at Cape Town, South Africa
These 10 people, between them, found nearly 90% of the NGC and IC objects brighter than magnitude 12.
The Herschels and Dunlop were the only ones to find more than 100 bright objects.
See
http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/ngcic_e.htm