THE STELLAR CONTENT OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD H-II REGION N-59-A

We present UBV photometry of the stellar cluster associated with N59A, a dusty H II region in the LMC. N59A's main detected source of ionization is an 05 V (or possibly earlier type) star with a visual extinction of 1.2 mag. N59A also contains fifteen O-B3 stars that may contribute to the ionization; these stars are affected by greatly differing amounts of extinction. However, the observed stellar content of N59A cannot completely account for the ionization of the gas and the heating of the associated dust. Some early massive star(s) still probably lie undetected in the core of (or behind) the central absorbing cloud. In addition to this young population associated with the H II region, we detect an underlying older population of giant stars. We have also detected one Galactic star, and a few supergiant candidates. These results are discussed in terms of the initial mass function.