Great Western Glove Manufacturing Company??

[Jobu]

Do any of the glove collectors have any info about the gloves made by this company and the era in which they made them?

Thanks in advance.

[Baseball Glove Collector]

Hey Bryan, the consensus from us glove guys is that Great Western Athletic Goods was a distributor, not a manufacturer, and based in Chicago in the 30's. Thomas E. Wilson merged with Western Sporting Goods forming Wilson-Western in '25 but Great Western is unrelated.

Mike T. and a few other guys posted something on the Vintage Baseball Glove Forum here:

http://www.vintagebaseballgloveforum...ic.php?p=26348

I have two late 30's Great Western catalogs in the Glove Library on my site here if you want to download:

https://www.baseballglovecollector.com/glove-library/

Just log in first and type in Great Western into the Search box on the left. Hope this helps a bit.

JD
www.baseballglovecollector.com

[Jobu]

Thanks Jim, that is great information.

Let me run a few things by you. There are two pieces I have that my be relevant. The fist is this poster in a barbershop photo for Great Western Tailoring Company featuring famous baseball players:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=267143

The other ad on the wall is for FW Ruebenbach Tailor in Sebastapol, CA. So not likely to be a Chicago barber with this ad on his wall.

The second piece is the reason I started this thread. This is an ad for the Great Western Glove Manufacturing Company in Chicago:

Great Western ad crop.jpg

This comes from a book I have dated to 1900 and seems to suggest they were selling gloves at that time.

I am curious if all of these "Great Western" might be divisions of the same company? Was this company selling gloves well before the 1920s-1930s?

[Baseball Glove Collector]

I totally overlooked the name of the company. Sorry about that. Great Western Glove Manufacturing Company - never heard of that one specifically in almost 30 years of collecting but yes, it is definitely way older than Great Western Athletic Goods, and at first glance, appears to be dead ball era.

I'll poke around and see if I can come up with anything. Good stuff!

JD

[Jobu]

I came across this listing for a Great Western Glove on Ebay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bas...-/373039977311

Not sure if this helps or not. I downloaded a few of the pictures for Net54 posterity.

[Baseball Glove Collector]

Hey Bryan, I can't find a thing about the Great Western Glove Manufacturing Company.

Cool glove you found but that's a Great Western Athletic Goods Co.

JD

[Jobu]

Thanks JD -- good "catch". (Sorry, couldn't resist).

I figured it was probably too good to be true to find an example that quickly.

Originally Posted by Baseball Glove Collector

Hey Bryan, I can't find a thing about the Great Western Glove Manufacturing Company.

Cool glove you found but that's a Great Western Athletic Goods Co.

JD