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 March 5, 1959, and March 5, 1960. In his journal entry for March 5, 1959, Indiana records that plans to share a share a loft with Agnes Martin were off, which "relieved a great pressure," and that he went uptown to see exhibitions at two galleries (Zao Wou-Ki at Kootz Galery and James Hiroshi Suzuki at Graham Gallery). After he bought two books, "in a feeling of celebration" at Wittenborn and Company: The Art of the Savages, by Claude Roy, and Art et Style by Bernard Buffet. Indiana also notes that he had invited a friend, Bob Dash, to the premier of Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the Metropolitan Opera. 

In his entry for March 5, 1960, Indiana records that collector Richard Brown Baker came for lunch, and that after the two of them went to Staten Island to see his art collection at the Staten Island Museum. He writes: "with all [the] snow, it was very much a winter day. A beautiful crossing on the ferry; the pilings at [the] Slip were particularly intriguing, covered and outlined as they were in white. An immense sharp pattern."

Indiana also notes that when Baker was visiting his studio he was most struck by Agadir (an early stage of The American Dream, I), although he did not recognize its title until Indiana told him (the work was named after the site of an earthquake in Morocco).