Petrus Camper (1722-1789) was a multi-disciplinary Dutch scientist: anatomy, physiology, zoology and paleontology. He was also a sculptor, politician and, according to some, the founder of anthropology. His lectures gained him a reputation throughout Europe. Much of his work, like his book on physiognomy and the ‘facial angle’, was used as the basis for later scientific racism. The handful of Black people who lived in the Netherlands between the 17th and 19th Century were regularly made objects of scientific research. At the time, public dissections were a common phenomenon. In 1758 Camper dissected an 11-year-old Angolan boy in the lecture theatre in De Waag, which means weigh house, and was originally a city gate and part of the walls of Amsterdam. In 1766 he publicly dissected an old black man and in 1768 a young black and also a mulatto boy. His findings showed that under the skin there is ‘no difference between the races’.
