A Review of "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" at Yale University Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection A couch from the 1820s upholstered in silk is among the works on display at Yale University Art Gallery. Just because rebels were dumping tea into Boston Harbor doesn't mean they didn't want nice teapots. And furniture. And coats of arms. Yale University Art Gallery ABOVE AND BEYOND George Frederic Barker's 1864 photograph, "The Moon." Currier and Ives's "Burning of the New York Crystal Palace." Yale Univeristy Art Gallery STRANGER IN RED Winslow Homer's "Old Mill (The Morning Bell)." "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," the three-part, long-running show of American art and craft at the Yale University Art Gallery, has arrived at its midpoint, "Defining the Nation," and the contradictions and ironies that were discernible in the first segment come into bolder relief here. The explosion of religious and political ideals that dominated the works in part one, "We, the People," gives way to an explosion of wealth and industry. There is plenty of overlap, of course, and there will be more when part three, "America Rising," opens in May. As its subtitle, "American Art From the Yale University Art Gallery" indicates, "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" is a kind of "Treasures of" compilation, organized originally as a traveling show during the final phase of the museum's expansion and renovation. The collection will be moved into its permanent exhibition space in December, but for now, it's been broken up not into a predictably chronological survey but into quirky, thought-provoking thematic segments. One work is central to all three parts of the exhibit: John Trumbull's iconic painting of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Trumbull, the Connecticut-born painter who fought in and chronicled the Revolution, consulted Thomas Jefferson for the historical details and devoted more than three decades to getting accurate portraits of all the delegates, signers and non-signers alike, who participated in the Second Continental Congress. Many of the miniatures he painted as guides were on view in part one. But as the label explains, Trumbull didn't stick to just the facts. He added fancy chairs and velvet drapes to make the scene a little more sumptuous than it actually was. And that taste for splendor, so at odds with Puritan ethics and democratic aesthetics, shows up again and again in this show. It's impossible to imagine anyone from the Massachusetts Bay Colony lounging on the exhibition's ostentatious 1820s couch upholstered in yellow silk, or using the elaborate 1705 silver monteith, a large, punch-bowly thing for chilling wine goblets. And what would the Puritans make of the tiny, highly worked, utterly mysterious object of gold and coral that turns out to be a child's teething toy? It was made by a Swiss immigrant to New York, Daniel Christian Fueter, in the 1760s. Around the same time, in Boston, a schoolgirl was laboring over an ornate coat of arms, embroidering on silk with metallic threads to display a family pedigree. Another coat of arms appears on an exuberantly decorated, mid-18th-century teakettle and stand, from the Philadelphia silversmith Joseph Richardson Sr. Embossed with a joyous riot of flowers and shells, it was owned by a member of the Quakers, often known as "Plain People." Plain people are few and far between in this part of the collection. Even the mill worker in Winslow Homer's 1871 painting "Old Mill (The Morning Bell) " is not quite what she seems: the label tells us that her bright red jacket suggests she's a city girl - perhaps one of the schoolteachers who dispersed to mill towns during the summer to earn some extra money. The show documents the positive and negative aspects of the Industrial Revolution. On the one hand, there were handsome, well-made consumer goods like clocks and pitchers that were suddenly affordable for ordinary people. On the other, there were industrial-scale disasters. The 1858 Currier and Ives lithograph "Burning of the New York Crystal Palace" is a scene of unmitigated horror with eerie echoes of 9/11, and it provides a marked contrast to romanticized paintings like Frederic Edwin Church's bucolic 1853 oil painting of "Mt. Ktaadn. If many of the works of art and decorative objects in this show seem chosen for their contemporary resonance as well as for their formal excellence, it can be no accident that the most diverse assortment can be found in the section devoted to education and scientific inquiry. There are fascinating medals bestowed on artists and scholars; an 1842 Phi Beta Kappa key; and several science-related images, like Thomas Eakins's oil study of a renowned surgeon, and George Frederic Barker's amazing 1864 photograph of the moon - all apt reminders that the pursuit of happiness was once synonymous with learning. "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Part Two, Defining the Nation," Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, through April 8. Information: artgallery.yale.edu or (203) 432-0600.