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.

His journal page for July 12, 1961, includes a black and white sketch of the painting The Calumet, which Indiana records was "only in letter stage" when Arthur Carrr (a clinical psychologist, art collector, and friend) saw it. He writes that Carr "was impressed by 'Year of Meteors' and other small canvasses [sic]. Was shocked by my tentative prices."