NGC 891 is a fine edge-on spiral with a faint dust lane along its equator. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 6, 1784, and cataloged as H V.19. However, in the appendix to his first catalog, he confused it with his H V.18 (M110, NGC 205) when discussing the discoveries of his siter Caroline Herschel; this remark was picked up by Admiral Smyth and later authors so that it was wrongly attributed to Caroline for a long time.