In an extraordinary restoration project, Michael S. Smith, interior designer for the Obama White House, recently redecorated the Illinois Governor’s Mansion in collaboration with First Lady MK Pritzker, utilizing the best of Illinois’s long tradition of fine craftsmanship to allow the mansion’s prodigious history, exceptional decorative arts, and superb art to shine. This visually stunning volume not only celebrates the updating of the Italianate–Greek Revival Illinois Governor’s Mansion in Springfield but also tells the story of the house’s evolution since 1855, of the lives and...