A group of A-type stars in the field of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) were noticed by Humphreys (1983) to have anomalously strong hydrogen (H) lines and a Balmer jump that are too strong for their luminosities. Their visual luminosities, based on membership in the SMC, are about two magnitudes brighter than one would expect from the appearance of the Balmer series. Humphreys also found that their colours are too red in U-B by 0.2 to 0.3 mag, but show little or no change in B-V relative to normal A-type supergiants; this is consistent with the strong Balmer jump in these stars' spectra. She also concluded that the objects do belong to the SMC.

Earlier, Sanduleak (1972) had identified a group of stars with similar properties in the LMC, but, because of their strong hydrogen lines, rejected them as members. However, Fehrenbach and Duflot (1972) recognized about 30 stars with A and F type spectra with unusually strong H lines. They concluded that they were members of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) because of their large negative radial velocities.