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.

Indiana's journal entry for December 31, 1961, occupies four pages. This page includes a color sketch of the painting "The President" (A Divorced Man Has Never Been the President). Indiana writes that Art (psychologist and art collector Arthur Carr) arrived before he was completely done with the painting. The note "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" at the top of the page refers to a film they saw that evening.