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 February 4, 1961, incudes a sketch of a detail of the painting The American Sweetheart, with a note that he added the letters (title) to the painting in the early a.m.

Indiana also records that it snowed 17 inches that day, and that he, along with Barbara and Steve Durkee, went to The Battery and then trudged through the snow to the Brooklyn Bridge. After crossing the bridge they spent three hours at the St. George Hotel, and then returned home for a late dinner, television, and Scrabble.