Shot from the air in crisp black and white, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse perches at the tip of the Cabrillo National Monument peninsula like a white chess piece on a headland swept by Pacific winds — the American flag unfurling from its staff, the winding road curling around the promontory, and the cold glitter of the ocean beyond. This 1948 RPPC-style photographic postcard captures the lighthouse during its early years as a national monument, designated in 1913 to honor the 1542 landing of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the first European explorer to set foot on what is now the US West Coast. The aerial perspective — likely taken from a low-flying aircraft — was a fashionable postcard technique in the immediate postwar years. Published and copyrighted 1948 by Ben Davis White of San Diego, an active California commercial photographer and publisher. Unused, unaddressed, with penciled "$3.00" dealer price.