Helen Clay Frick's Red Cross Kit (circa 1917), made of wood, leather, metal and cloth, is part of the show "Possessions, Personalities and the Pursuit of Refinement" at the Frick Art & Historical Center. Click photo for larger image. 'Possessions, Personalities and the Pursuit of Refinement' Where:Frick Art & Historical Center, 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze. When: The exhibition runs through April 9. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Information: 412-371-0600 or visit www.frickart.org.

He was a Princeton-educated paleontologist whose birding expeditions to Kenya and Ethiopia enriched Carnegie Museum of Natural History collections and who authored a tome on the "Horned Ruminants of North America" for the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

She was a collector of early Italian Renaissance paintings and 18th-century French fine and decorative arts who, when World War I broke out, served at the front lines in Europe as a Red Cross nurse.

They were Childs and Helen Clay Frick, the two children of four born to Henry Clay Frick and Adelaide Howard Childs Frick who survived to adulthood, and their stories are part of an absorbing exhibition that expands the way its staff and the public are likely to experience and think about the Frick Art & Historical Center.

"Possessions, Personalities and the Pursuit of Refinement: A Fresh Look at the Collections of the Frick Art & Historical Center" pushes the significance of the site beyond embalmed bastion of a specific privileged family to explore how the Fricks reflected the America they lived in and the class they were a part of.

The exhibition came out of the organization's most recent strategic plan, said Thomas Smart, director of collections and exhibitions. "We have a unified site with multiple collections. We wanted to show it in all of its diversity." With the help of Frick Art Museum registrar Sarah Hall and Clayton registrar Robin Pflasterer, Smart organized the thousands of collection objects -- "from small drawings to school desks"-- cataloging them and building a data base. "Within that framework, we developed themes," he said.

While much of the material in the exhibition has general historic application, the individual family members retain strong presence, particularly in the case of larger-than-life Henry Clay Frick.

One of the most eye-catching displays is about his personal rail car, "The Westmoreland." Built in 1910, it was luxuriously outfitted; for example, it had its own white porcelain and gilt china, samples of which are exhibited.

"He used it as his private jet," Smart said.

Also of interest are items that show that Frick's art collecting was not simply an affectation of the class he'd become a part of, but that he had personal relationships with many artists, and sought to learn about the fine and decorative arts he collected. For example, displayed near one of several works by Jean-Francois Millet -- a landscape pastel, "Le Puy de Dome" -- is a book on the geography of the region pictured.

The organizers also "wanted to give more dimensionality to Mrs. Frick," Smart said.

Displayed is an evening ensemble she wore to a reception given at the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. Also exhibited are black articles of clothing -- a hat with bird feathers, shoes with jet trim -- presumed to have been worn when in mourning, possibly for the two lost children.

Household items include a silver butter pat, nutmeg grater, service bell and nut basket.

"There's a sense of refinement -- that aesthetic sense. They wanted what they used daily to be beautiful objects, to make statements all by themselves," Smart said.

While that may seem self-serving, there was more to it. Achieving social rank at the time had less to do with acquiring wealth than with what the exhibition labels refer to as "more subtle indicators." Education, manners, dress and hospitality were important means for distinguishing the wealthy from the middle class.

It would be Mrs. Frick's duty to ensure that members of her household achieved familiarity and comfort with such goals.

The "pursuit of refinement" of the exhibition title "usually means having a humanist education," Smart said, and he wanted the objects to reflect that rather than being "the greatest hits show."

"So it's not the most important objects [in the collection]." Rather they're what illustrate that what the Fricks were engaged in was "part of a trend among their peers to pursue refinement, to become humanists."

Smart also thought it was important to talk about the children's lives beyond Clayton.

"We looked at Mr. and Mrs. Frick. Then Helen and Childs. We grew them up." Their childhood and school years had been routinely addressed, but he wanted to talk about what they became as adults.

Helen's impressions of her travels in Italy in the 1920s are revealed in heavily notated and illustrated scrapbooks, one of which is displayed. Reading them, Smart said, "you understand more fully her interest in these Italian Renaissance paintings and their spiritual component. She saw ... heaven, I guess ... in those paintings."

Research showed, Smart said, that Childs was "as highly respected as a scientist and a scholar as he was as a philanthropist and museologist."

They both maintained an active interest in The Frick Collection, New York, as adults, and contributed to and/or established cultural institutions.

It all cycles back to the pursuit of refinement for Smart.

It's "part of creating an engaged citizenry," he said.

"What did [Helen's] pursuit of refinement lead to?" he muses while looking at a case containing her circa 1917 Red Cross kit and wool Abercrombie & Fitch Red Cross hat. "Service, engagement, patriotism, nationalism.

"I think you get a different appreciation of the artifacts of the Frick Art & Historical Center because of this."