President recognizes Eli B. Budd as consul of Costa Rica at New York. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 22 February 1864, 2d ed., 2:3.

"A fair, plump lady" from Dubuque, Iowa, who merely wants to see Lincoln, interrupts cabinet meeting. Welles, Diary.

In the afternoon, President Lincoln and his family host a "private reception" in the White House for some "celebrated little people." Lincoln's guests include Charles Nestel and his sister Eliza Nestel, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The siblings are members of an entertainment troupe that is performing at Washington, D. C.'s Odd Fellows' Hall. The Nestels are better known, respectively, by the stage names Commodore Foote and the Fairy Queen. A newspaper reports that a large number of the "elite...of the city" have been attending the "wonderful performances." Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 20 February 1864, 2:5, 3:1; Daily National Republican (Washington, DC), 20 February 1864, 2d ed., 2:6.

President Lincoln and his family attend an evening performance by Edwin Booth as Sir Edward Mortimer in The Iron Chest and as Petruchio in Katherine and Petruchio at Grover's Theatre. Daily National Republican (Washington, D.C.), 19 February 1864, 3:4; 20 February 1864, 2:3.