diff --git a/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/handlers.py b/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/handlers.py
index 1840cf4..6e0b0c7 100644
--- a/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/handlers.py
+++ b/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/handlers.py
@@ -3,12 +3,11 @@
 # Copyright (c) IPython Development Team.
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 
-import logging
 from tornado import web
 
 from zmq.utils import jsonapi
 
-from ...base.handlers import IPythonHandler, json_errors, path_regex
+from ...base.handlers import IPythonHandler, json_errors
 
 
 class MainKernelSpecHandler(IPythonHandler):
@@ -34,7 +33,10 @@ class KernelSpecHandler(IPythonHandler):
     @json_errors
     def get(self, kernel_name):
         ksm = self.kernel_spec_manager
-        kernelspec = ksm.get_kernel_spec(kernel_name)
+        try:
+            kernelspec = ksm.get_kernel_spec(kernel_name)
+        except KeyError:
+            raise web.HTTPError(404, u'Kernel spec %s not found' % kernel_name)
         self.set_header("Content-Type", 'application/json')
         self.finish(kernelspec.to_json())
 
@@ -47,24 +49,18 @@ class KernelSpecResourceHandler(web.StaticFileHandler, IPythonHandler):
 
     def get(self, kernel_name, path, include_body=True):
         ksm = self.kernel_spec_manager
-        self.root = ksm.get_kernel_spec(kernel_name).resource_dir
-        self.log.warn("Set root: %s", self.root)
+        try:
+            self.root = ksm.get_kernel_spec(kernel_name).resource_dir
+        except KeyError:
+            raise web.HTTPError(404, u'Kernel spec %s not found' % kernel_name)
+        self.log.debug("Serving kernel resource from: %s", self.root)
         return web.StaticFileHandler.get(self, path, include_body=include_body)
     
-#    @classmethod
-#    def get_absolute_path(cls, root, path):
-#        res = web.StaticFileHandler.get_absolute_path(cls, root, path)
-#        self.log.warn("Full path: %s", res)
-#        return res
-    
     def head(self, kernel_name, path):
         self.get(kernel_name, path, include_body=False)
 
 
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # URL to handler mappings
-#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
 
 _kernel_name_regex = r"(?P<kernel_name>\w+)"
 
diff --git a/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/tests/test_kernelspecs_api.py b/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/tests/test_kernelspecs_api.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a7086b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/IPython/html/services/kernelspecs/tests/test_kernelspecs_api.py
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# coding: utf-8
+"""Test the kernel specs webservice API."""
+
+import errno
+import io
+import json
+import os
+
+pjoin = os.path.join
+
+import requests
+
+from IPython.html.utils import url_path_join
+from IPython.html.tests.launchnotebook import NotebookTestBase, assert_http_error
+
+# Copied from IPython.kernel.tests.test_kernelspec so updating that doesn't
+# break these tests
+sample_kernel_json = {'argv':['cat', '{connection_file}'],
+                      'display_name':'Test kernel',
+                      'language':'bash',
+                     }
+
+some_resource = u"The very model of a modern major general"
+
+
+class KernelSpecAPI(object):
+    """Wrapper for notebook API calls."""
+    def __init__(self, base_url):
+        self.base_url = base_url
+
+    def _req(self, verb, path, body=None):
+        response = requests.request(verb,
+                url_path_join(self.base_url, 'api/kernelspecs', path),
+                data=body,
+        )
+        response.raise_for_status()
+        return response
+
+    def list(self):
+        return self._req('GET', '')
+
+    def kernel_spec_info(self, name):
+        return self._req('GET', name)
+    
+    def kernel_resource(self, name, path):
+        return self._req('GET', url_path_join(name, path))
+
+class APITest(NotebookTestBase):
+    """Test the kernelspec web service API"""
+    def setUp(self):
+        ipydir = self.ipython_dir.name
+        sample_kernel_dir = pjoin(ipydir, 'kernels', 'sample')
+        try:
+            os.makedirs(sample_kernel_dir)
+        except OSError as e:
+            if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
+                raise
+        
+        with open(pjoin(sample_kernel_dir, 'kernel.json'), 'w') as f:
+            json.dump(sample_kernel_json, f)
+        
+        with io.open(pjoin(sample_kernel_dir, 'resource.txt'), 'w',
+                     encoding='utf-8') as f:
+            f.write(some_resource)
+
+        self.ks_api = KernelSpecAPI(self.base_url())
+
+    def test_list_kernelspecs(self):
+        specs = self.ks_api.list().json()
+        assert isinstance(specs, list)
+        
+        # 2: the sample kernelspec created in setUp, and the native Python kernel
+        self.assertEqual(len(specs), 2)
+        assert any(s == {'name': 'sample', 'display_name': 'Test kernel'}
+                    for s in specs), specs
+
+    def test_get_kernelspec(self):
+        spec = self.ks_api.kernel_spec_info('Sample').json()  # Case insensitive
+        self.assertEqual(spec['language'], 'bash')
+
+    def test_get_nonexistant_kernelspec(self):
+        with assert_http_error(404):
+            self.ks_api.kernel_spec_info('nonexistant')
+    
+    def test_get_kernel_resource_file(self):
+        res = self.ks_api.kernel_resource('sAmple', 'resource.txt')
+        self.assertEqual(res.text, some_resource)
+    
+    def test_get_nonexistant_resource(self):
+        with assert_http_error(404):
+            self.ks_api.kernel_resource('nonexistant', 'resource.txt')
+        
+        with assert_http_error(404):
+            self.ks_api.kernel_resource('sample', 'nonexistant.txt')