Who can appreciate clear skies more than Santa? This 1927 Harris & Ewing photograph documents Santa receiving rather than giving: he gets the “all clear” to navigate the skies on Christmas Eve, complete with a pilot’s license.

While a pilot’s license may not be on everyone’s wish list, anyone who has worked with historical photographs can appreciate the gift of an informative caption. Captions for the thousands of photographs in the Harris & Ewing Collection run the gamut: Some offer full details on who, what, when, where and why, as in this case. Others arrived with no caption at all–a different kind of gift for history detectives everywhere–an invitation to hunt for clues!

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