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 December 18, 1961, is four pages long and describes the opening of the exhibition Recent Acquisitions: Painting and Sculpture, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which included Indiana's The American Dream, I. Indiana begins the entry recording that he called Becky Anderson (wife of gallerist David Anderson and daughter-in-law of Martha Jackson) to ask her if she would be going to the opening that evening, and that she let him know that she had his check for Moon and The American Dream, I ($1600). He notes that he decided to do a last minute drawing for her and David, but that he arrived too late, as she was already on her way out. She handed Indiana his check and "begged off" the opening and dinner, wanting to get to her farm as soon as possible.   

Indiana records that he then had dinner, waiting until J. (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss) finished his appointment, and that they went to the museum together, arriving by seven. He writes: "The American Dream is hung very handsomely on a room divider next [to] a very dark Bruce Conner’s Box. See Campbell Wiley [sic], who is very concerned about its warpage and subsequent shadow."

Indiana mentions different people he ran into: Claes Oldenburg and his wife, Alfred Jensen, Lil Picard, Bertha Schaefer, and Ellsworth Kelly. He notes the latter was there for the showing of his Running White, but that Jack Youngerman was not there for his Big Black, "a curious coincidence [that] all three of our paintings should be dominantly black, when we have all been very much pre-occupied with color."

Indiana writes that he introduced himself to Alfred Barr, the museum's Director of Collections, who "was immediately warm and cordial. Liked my comments (thought them as much a “masterpiece” as [the] painting, liked 'Dream,' and was concerned about [the] price I got, and how it was hung.  Previously it occupied a wall of its own, but had [to] be moved [to] accommodate Bruce Conner’s [sic] Black Box, which had been forgotten until [the] end. He was also concerned about [the] warpage and [the] curious shadows, and reassured me [that] it would be repaired. He also was curious about my name, but respected by desire for privacy."  

Indiana also records telling curator Dorothy Miller that he would be getting a new stove soon (he had sent her a letter on December 11, 1961, lamenting the fact that his gas meter had stopped working, but that it had inspired a new painting, The American Gas Works).