  BVRIJHK photometry, Spitzer-GLIMPSE photometry and HK band spectroscopy were
used to study the stellar content of IRAS 19343+2026, a (proto)star/cluster
candidate, located close to the Galactic plane. The data suggest that IRAS
19343+2026 is a rich cluster associated with a massive protostar of 7.6 Msol
with an age of ~ 10^5 yr. Three point sources in the vicinity of the
far-infrared (FIR) peak are also found to be early B type stars. The remaining
(predominantly low mass) members of the cluster are best represented by a 1 - 3
Myr pre-main-sequence (PMS) population. HK band spectra of two bright and five
faint point sources in the cluster confirm that the results obtained from the
photometry are good representations of their young stellar object (YSO) nature.
Thus, IRAS 19343+2026 is a young cluster with at least four early B-type stars
classified as young (10^4 - 10^5 yr), that are surrounded by a somewhat older
(1 - 3 Myr) population of low mass YSOs. Together, these results argue for a
scenario in which low mass stars form prior to massive stars in a cluster
forming environment. We compute the Initial Mass Function (IMF) for this
cluster using the K-band luminosity function; the slope of the IMF is shallower
than predicted by the Salpeter's mass function. The cluster mass, Mtot, is
estimated to be in the range ~ 307 Msol (from the data completeness limit) -
585 Msol (extrapolated down to the brown dwarf limit, assuming a certain IMF).
