Arab Courier Attacked by Lions is the most dynamic and best-known piece of taxidermy ever created by French naturalist and taxidermist Jules Verreaux. Verreaux designed this extraordinary exhibit for the Paris Exposition of 1867, where it was awarded a gold medal. His aim was to portray life in motion and to stir the emotions of viewers—an aim very different from that of other taxidermists of his time.

Arab Courier features a now-extinct subspecies of lion, the Barbary lion, which was gradually eliminated from its North African realm by expanding human settlement in the Saharan and coastal regions of North Africa. The "Barbary" region of the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and the Atlantic Ocean was historically occupied by the "Berbers" in the second millennium B.C. After falling to the Arabs in the seventh century A.D. and a thousand years of Arab control, it was by the 19th century under European colonial influence, and included such states as Algeria, Tunisia, Tripoli and Morocco. France, as a leading colonial nation, dominated Algeria by mid-century. At the time of the Paris Exposition of 1867, it was a logical nation to interpret the natural history of the region to the scientific world and the general public.

Verreaux fashioned the lions and the camel from metal frameworks wrapped with excelsior or straw, over which the animal skins were stretched. Although some or all of the original skulls and teeth were used, facial details were cast in plaster. The human figure was constructed of steel rods wrapped in horsehair or excelsior and covered with a knitted cotton fabric. The face and hands are painted plaster casts.

After its debut in Paris 1867, Arab Courier Attacked by Lions made its way to the United States. This Paris Exposition, like other 19th-century world's fairs in Paris and elsewhere, produced works of art and exhibit materials that were dispersed after the great exhibitions closed. In 1869, the American Museum of Natural History purchased the Arab Courier. Except for a brief hiatus in 1876, when it appeared at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, the exhibit remained at the American Museum until 1898. Arab Courier was the first animal group ever acquired by the American Museum.

Arab Courier was wholly unlike other animal exhibits of its day, which were typically single specimens stiffly mounted and affixed to drab wooden pedestals, and displayed mechanically in rows. While the public lavished the exhibit with attention and praise, museum administrators and scientific staff at New York museum found this theatrical display ill-suited to an institution devoted to scientific pursuits. It was decided that the exhibit should be disposed of.

The Carnegie Institute has often been credited with rescuing the exhibit, but in fact that honor belongs to American Museum of Natural History curator Joseph Asaph Allen. Allen realized its historical value as well as its enormous potential to attract and delight visitors, and he knew that Andrew Carnegie's new museum in Pittsburgh was in need of impressive new exhibits. After Carnegie Institute's purchase of the exhibit and a complicated shipping process, the exhibit arrived in Pittsburgh and required cleaning, repair, and renovation before reassembly.

Frederick Webster, of Carnegie Institute, was a graduate of Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester, New York and was nationally recognized as an innovator in developing animal habitat groups for exhibition. He was ideally qualified to renovate the Arab Courier group. The camel required the most extensive work. Wood, wire and excelsior were added to the neck for additional support and the ears and eyes were repaired. He also remodeled the mouths and tongues of the camel and lions and cleaned and waxed their teeth. In addition, the hides, clothing, saddle and other paraphernalia were thoroughly cleaned. When the exhibit was reassembled it was encased in glass for the first time in its history, and it went on display at the Carnegie Museum in November of 1899.

Designed over 100 years ago to be viewed from all sides, it was displayed that way until 1958, when the case was last opened for cleaning and a background was painted by museum artist Ottmar Von Fuehrer. The current Exhibits staff has dispensed with the background in order to display Arab Courier as designer Verreaux originally intended—visually unhindered by supports or other obstructions.