diff --git a/collects/drracket/private/drracket-normal.rkt b/collects/drracket/private/drracket-normal.rkt
index cd2455ac83..e5dc6563cc 100644
--- a/collects/drracket/private/drracket-normal.rkt
+++ b/collects/drracket/private/drracket-normal.rkt
@@ -132,7 +132,9 @@
     [(currently-the-weekend?)
      weekend-bitmap-spec]
     [else normal-bitmap-spec]))
-(define the-splash-bitmap (read-bitmap the-bitmap-spec))
+(define the-splash-bitmap (if (path? the-bitmap-spec)
+                              (read-bitmap the-bitmap-spec)
+                              the-bitmap-spec))
 (set-splash-char-observer drracket-splash-char-observer)
 
 (when (eq? (system-type) 'macosx)