diff --git a/matplotlibrc.template b/matplotlibrc.template
index b628c52b355e..b6c3398df055 100644
--- a/matplotlibrc.template
+++ b/matplotlibrc.template
@@ -322,6 +322,12 @@ backend      : $TEMPLATE_BACKEND
                                          # value of the data.
 
 
+# axes.spines.left   : True   # display axis spines
+# axes.spines.bottom : True
+# axes.spines.top    : True
+# axes.spines.right  : True
+
+
 #axes.unicode_minus  : True    # use unicode for the minus symbol
                                # rather than hyphen.  See
                                # http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus_and_minus_signs#Character_codes