diff --git a/examples/pylab_examples/image_demo3.py b/examples/pylab_examples/image_demo3.py
index ba1c7011ae8f..fd27a20380cc 100644
--- a/examples/pylab_examples/image_demo3.py
+++ b/examples/pylab_examples/image_demo3.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 figure(figsize=figsize)
 ax = axes([0,0,1,1], frameon=False)
 ax.set_axis_off()
-im = imshow(lena, origin='lower')
+im = imshow(lena)
 
 show()
 
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/image.py b/lib/matplotlib/image.py
index 9b7076795e72..d2d61549709a 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/image.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/image.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 """
 from __future__ import division
 import os, warnings
+import math
 
 import numpy as np
 from numpy import ma
@@ -1189,6 +1190,9 @@ def pilread():
         if cbook.is_string_like(fname):
             basename, ext = os.path.splitext(fname)
             ext = ext.lower()[1:]
+        elif hasattr(fname, 'name'):
+            basename, ext = os.path.splitext(fname.name)
+            ext = ext.lower()[1:]
         else:
             ext = 'png'
     else:
@@ -1255,14 +1259,14 @@ def imsave(fname, arr, vmin=None, vmax=None, cmap=None, format=None,
 
 def pil_to_array( pilImage ):
     """
-    load a PIL image and return it as a numpy array of uint8.  For
+    load a PIL image and return it as a numpy array. For
     grayscale images, the return array is MxN.  For RGB images, the
     return value is MxNx3.  For RGBA images the return value is MxNx4
     """
-    def toarray(im):
-        'return a 1D array of floats'
-        x_str = im.tostring('raw',im.mode,0,-1)
-        x = np.fromstring(x_str,np.uint8)
+    def toarray(im, dtype=np.uint8):
+        'return a 1D array of dtype'
+        x_str = im.tostring('raw', im.mode)
+        x = np.fromstring(x_str, dtype)
         return x
 
     if pilImage.mode in ('RGBA', 'RGBX'):
@@ -1279,7 +1283,15 @@ def toarray(im):
         x = toarray(im)
         x.shape = im.size[1], im.size[0], 3
         return x
-
+    elif pilImage.mode.startswith('I;16'):
+        # return MxN luminance array of uint16
+        im = pilImage
+        if im.mode.endswith('B'):
+            x = toarray(im, '>u2')
+        else:
+            x = toarray(im, '<u2')
+        x.shape = im.size[1], im.size[0]
+        return x.astype('=u2')
     else: # try to convert to an rgba image
         try:
             im = pilImage.convert('RGBA')
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_image/uint16.tif b/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_image/uint16.tif
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..78b8ea4cca16
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/matplotlib/tests/baseline_images/test_image/uint16.tif differ
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_image.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_image.py
index 2c9db8a23e17..88e09be3c70d 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_image.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_image.py
@@ -75,6 +75,11 @@ def test_image_python_io():
     buffer.seek(0)
     plt.imread(buffer)
 
+def test_imread_pil_uint16():
+    img = plt.imread(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 
+                     'baseline_images/test_image/uint16.tif'))
+    assert (img.dtype == np.uint16)
+
 # def test_image_unicode_io():
 #     fig = plt.figure()
 #     ax = fig.add_subplot(111)