Photo: Jody Dole; Courtesy Star of. Hope Foundation, Vinalhaven, Maine

Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

In his journal entry for April 23, 1962, Indiana describes his last morning in Washington, D.C., which he and his partner J. (fashion desinger John Kloss) had been visiting:  "Our last Washington experience was v[ery] early [this] morning wh[en] Walter [a friend] stopped at the Potomac and let us get out to see [the] Lincoln Memorial and a glorious reflection of [the] Washington Monument and even Capitol Dome in [the] reflecting pool."

He writes that he slept most of the bus ride back, but that Kloss, woke him up to see the sun rise over New York, which he was too sleepy to appreciate. Back home he notes that the ginkgo trees of Jeannette Park were all green. 

Indiana records that he slept until one or so, and then worked again on Marine Works, trying to put the letters "M" and "W" into focus. He also went to Greenwich to pick up some 1/16 inch bolts, getting the last eight that the hardware store had, which were just enough for his sculpture Star.

He also describes his evening in, which included watching a Picasso tribute on television as well as the 1932 movie Sky Bride, and a visit by Stephen and Barbara Durkee. Indiana frequently mentions current events in his journals. Here "rocket shot [to] [the] moon turns 'idiot'" refers to the Ranger 4, which took off from Cape Canaveral on Apri 23. It landed on the moon three days later, but failed to send back pictures due to technical fault.