NEW LONG TERM EXHIBITION

Commendator Oliveira Júnior.

The visionary entrepreneur

Commendator Oliveira Júnior.

In its 10th anniversary, the Hat Museum opened a new long term exhibition entirely dedicated to the life and work of Commendator António José de Oliveira Júnior, the founder of Empresa Industrial de Chapelaria where, today, is the museum.
António José de Oliveira Júnior was born at 17th April 1864. At 30 years old and with Pedro Palmares he establishes the Oliveira & Palmares, the first steam factory capable of producing rabbit fur hats in S. João da Madeira. As industrial he takes part in different societies and creates several enterprises however, in 1914, with Empresa Industrial de Chapelaria, he will start a new era in the industrial history of this town.
By introducing the mechanization in the hat industry of this region, Oliveira Júnior created the conditions to transform S. João da Madeira in one of the greatest industrial centres of the country, a position that still holds today.
Oliveira Júnior has devoted great part of his life to economical, industrial, social and cultural development of his city. He had important public positions as city councilman at the City Hall of Oliveira de Azeméis and as the first Ombudsman of Santa Casa da Misericórdia of S. João da Madeira.
Oliveira Júnior was a very complete man and left an important legacy to his hometown: the example.
This exhibition pays tribute to the man and to the great industrial visionary that became a pillar of S. João da Madeira’s community.
This new long term exhibition can be visited at the Hat Museum during its opening hours.