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.

This journal page covers February 21, 1959, and February 21, 1960. In the first entry on the page, for February 21, 1959, Indiana records going to a matinee of Verdi's Macbeth at the Metropolitan Opera. He describes it as a "very “old-style” presentation in [the] grand manner. My first experience with this opera."  

The entry for February 21, 1960 includes a sketch of the sculpture French Atomic Bomb. Indiana also describes a visit by clinical psychologist and art collector Arthur Carr and his nephews to the studio. He notes that Carr "saw much [that] he had not seen, and expressed enthusiasm," and that his nephews were "left speechless."