Fascinating museum patrons since 1899, one of the most popular displays at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, in Pittsburgh, PA, was called “Arab Courier Attacked by Lions,” which depicted a courier riding a camel while fending off an attack from two now-extinct Barbary lions. The exhibit was removed in 2020 in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. It was then returned in July 2021, but placed behind a curtain with signage warning, and shortly after, the diorama was removed permanently by the museum under a new policy on displays containing human remains. Not only that, but further reasons later stated that the diorama furthered cultural stereotypes, minimized violent acts, contained inaccuracies, reinforced colonist views, and also pitted humans against nature. It also came to light that the diorama’s creator was known to have robbed the graves of indigenous people to make his pieces.
Now the diorama is gone for good, as extinct as the Barbary lions inside it. SO if you ever had a curiosity, or wanted to witness a depiction of something that ACTUALLY COULD HAVE OCCURRED IN HISTORY, do not look to The Carnegie Museum of Natural History to teach you about those instances.
The museum issued a statement on those policies, “While scientific research is integral to the mission of the Museum, this policy acknowledges that human remains were once living, breathing human beings with familial and cultural ties. When possible, the Museum will use informed consent from the individual, their closest living relatives, or representatives of descendant communities as the baseline for permission to exhibit, access, and curate human remains. In cases where the descendant community of the individual is not known or cannot be established, the Museum will engage with ethical stakeholders … to determine how to move forward regarding research, access, and display,” the new policy reads.
Isn’t every individual referenced in history “living, breathing human beings with familial and cultural ties”? Not only is the diorama a work of art, made by a creator, with the mission in mind to depict a scene that we can view, contemplate, and draw our own conclusions from, it is also depicting a scene which has happened in history, and most likely many times. It is a showcase of the plight of the courier, the danger of the mission, and the danger of the wild. Well, look no more, as you might as well forget about it.