1880's extended length glove

[Runscott]

Also, I thought that in the late 1880's (OJ period) it was still considered to be kind of 'sissy' to wear any type of glove, and that only catchers were immune from criticism for doing so. Even the fielders leaned toward the fingerless gloves, but were moving toward bigger ones.

I love this glove image:

Doc Bushong OJ with fingerless glove

This Bushong image makes it more obvious that he is wearing a full glove on his left hand, and a fingerless on his right - I'm sure it's the same on the previous image. Reach was selling gloves in sets back then - full glove for the left hand, fingerless for the right. The evolution from two to one makes total sense to me: fielders caught barehanded using both hands. They then moved to using minimalist gloves, so still catching with two hands, they needed two gloves, and the fingerless right one allowed them to throw better.

Doc Bushong OJ showing full-finger left-hand glove

I'm going to verify the above through my Spalding and Reach Guides, then edit this post again - it's all from memory and could be full of errors.