No, not all of them [herms] have wheels. Most of them did. The wheels came about because of meeting Steve Durkee. He knew of a place where there were a number of old wheels that had been abandoned and provided me with a great number of uniform wooden and iron wheels that had been probably for baby carriages or something. And he himself was working in this form at that time. And we often competed for the wood that was in these demolition sites. . . . However, it wasn't an unnatural assimilation because I had become very interested in the circle and used, and have used, the circle consistently in my paintings. And after all, the wheel is merely a physical projection of the circle. So it was just a natural find and one which I could put to use with complete ease and relevancy.
— Robert Indiana
Richard Brown Baker, Oral history interview with Robert Indiana, New York, September 12 and November 7, 1963, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., p. 140.