diff --git a/.mailmap b/.mailmap
index b0df2fbcd0c7..395e7c73ee0e 100644
--- a/.mailmap
+++ b/.mailmap
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ Jens Hedegaard Nielsen <jenshnielsen@gmail.com> <jens.nielsen@ucl.ac.uk>
 John Hunter <jdh2358@gmail.com>
 Jorrit Wronski <jowr@mek.dtu.dk>
 Jouni K. Seppänen <jks@iki.fi>
+Joseph Fox-Rabinovitz <jfoxrabinovitz@gmail.com> Mad Physicist <madphysicist@users.noreply.github.com>
 Julien Schueller <julien.schueller@gmail.com> <schueller@porsche-l64.phimeca.lan>
 Julien Schueller <julien.schueller@gmail.com> <schueller@bx-l64.phimeca.lan>
 Kevin Davies <kdavies4@gmail.com> <daviesk24@yahoo.com>
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/lines.py b/lib/matplotlib/lines.py
index 32b51df5cf2e..9f8ba7a653f3 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/lines.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/lines.py
@@ -985,6 +985,9 @@ def set_drawstyle(self, drawstyle):
         ACCEPTS: ['default' | 'steps' | 'steps-pre' | 'steps-mid' |
                   'steps-post']
         """
+        if drawstyle not in self.drawStyles:
+            raise ValueError('Unrecognized drawstyle ' +
+                             ' '.join(self.drawStyleKeys))
         if self._drawstyle != drawstyle:
             self.stale = True
         self._drawstyle = drawstyle
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_lines.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_lines.py
index 775b02990add..dc0b1f7b461a 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_lines.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_lines.py
@@ -118,6 +118,29 @@ def test_valid_linestyles():
         line.set_linestyle('aardvark')
 
 
+@cleanup
+def test_drawstyle_variants():
+    fig = plt.figure()
+    ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
+    for ds in ("default", "steps-mid", "steps-pre", "steps-post",
+               "steps"):
+        ax.plot(range(10), drawstyle=ds)
+
+    fig.canvas.draw()
+    assert True
+
+
+@cleanup
+def test_valid_drawstyles():
+    if sys.version_info[:2] < (2, 7):
+        raise nose.SkipTest("assert_raises as context manager "
+                            "not supported with Python < 2.7")
+
+    line = mlines.Line2D([], [])
+    with assert_raises(ValueError):
+        line.set_drawstyle('foobar')
+
+
 @image_comparison(baseline_images=['line_collection_dashes'], remove_text=True)
 def test_set_line_coll_dash_image():
     fig = plt.figure()