diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/filters/CharsetEncodingFilter.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/filters/CharsetEncodingFilter.java
index 2f654f05e..d6a2c6a83 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/filters/CharsetEncodingFilter.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/filters/CharsetEncodingFilter.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import java.io.IOException;
 import javax.servlet.Filter;
 import javax.servlet.FilterChain;
 import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;
+import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 import javax.servlet.ServletException;
 import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
 import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
@@ -15,17 +16,37 @@ import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
 import org.apache.commons.fileupload.servlet.ServletFileUpload;
 
 public class CharsetEncodingFilter implements Filter {
-    public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
-    }
+	@Override
+	public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
+		// Nothing to set up
+	}
 
-    public void doFilter(ServletRequest servletRequest, ServletResponse servletResponse, FilterChain filterChain) throws IOException, ServletException {
-        if( !ServletFileUpload.isMultipartContent((HttpServletRequest) servletRequest) )
-            servletRequest.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");        
-        servletResponse.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
-        filterChain.doFilter(servletRequest, servletResponse);
-    }
+	@Override
+	public void doFilter(ServletRequest servletRequest,
+			ServletResponse servletResponse, FilterChain filterChain)
+			throws IOException, ServletException {
+		HttpServletRequest req = (HttpServletRequest) servletRequest;
+		ServletContext ctx = req.getSession().getServletContext();
+		String url = req.getRequestURL().toString();
 
-    public void destroy() {
-    }
+		if (!ServletFileUpload.isMultipartContent(req)) {
+			servletRequest.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
+		}
+
+		if (req.getContentType() == null) {
+			String typeFromContext = ctx.getMimeType(url);
+			if (typeFromContext == null) {
+				servletResponse.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
+			} else {
+				servletResponse.setContentType(typeFromContext);
+			}
+		}
+
+		filterChain.doFilter(servletRequest, servletResponse);
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public void destroy() {
+		// Nothing to tear down
+	}
 }
-
diff --git a/webapp/web/WEB-INF/web.xml b/webapp/web/WEB-INF/web.xml
index 6c8a7db6b..720b72fb1 100644
--- a/webapp/web/WEB-INF/web.xml
+++ b/webapp/web/WEB-INF/web.xml
@@ -1238,8 +1238,63 @@
     <url-pattern>/selectLocale</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
 
-
+  <!-- ==================== mime types ============================== -->
+  
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>css</extension>
+    <mime-type>text/css</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>gif</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/gif</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>GIF</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/gif</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>htm</extension>
+    <mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>html</extension>
+    <mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>ico</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/x-icon</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>jpeg</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/jpeg</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>jpg</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/jpeg</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>js</extension>
+    <mime-type>application/javascript</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>png</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/png</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>svg</extension>
+    <mime-type>image/svg+xml</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>txt</extension>
+    <mime-type>text/plain</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  <mime-mapping>
+    <extension>xml</extension>
+    <mime-type>application/xml</mime-type>
+  </mime-mapping>
+  
   <!-- ==================== tag libraries ============================== -->
+  
   <jsp-config>
     <taglib>
       <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/tlds/database.tld</taglib-uri>