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.

In his journal page for September 23, 1962, Indiana records completing his work on the sculpture Eat with the insertion of a pitchfork into a hole that he had stayed up until 4 a.m. to drill. The entry also includes a sketch of the work's "sign" (the circle with the word "eat"), with a note that the colors are cadmium yellow medium, and cadmium red light. (Indiana made changes to the sculpture as a later date, replacing the pitchfork with a peg, and using green instead of yellow for the "eat.")

Indiana then describes a visit by the collector Myron Orlofsky, who came with a date and another couple that included the television personality Peggy Cass. He notes that Orlofsky seemed to like everything that he saw, asking him to bring down The Rebecca (which he later purchased), and that The Calumet was his favorite. Indiana records that Cass telephoned him later to say that she wanted The Calumet, and that he was sorry that he quoted a price of $1500 (the work would instead go to the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts).

Indiana also records that Lenore Tawney came over for dinner, and that they watched the opening of the new Philharmonic Hall on television.