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 February 13, 1959, and February 13, 1960. In his entry for February 13, 1959, Indiana records rising early to go to Scarsdale, where he taught art classes, and that he saw the pianist Glenn Gould at Carnegie Hall that evening.

Indiana's journals frequently reference current events, and in his entry for February 13, 1960, he notes that the bodies from the Lady Be Good (a US bomber that disappeared during a WWII mission) were found in the Sahara the same day that the French announced their detonation of a plutonium bomb. The latter event would inspire the title for the wood construction which Indiana began working on that day, French Atomic Bomb.

The entry includes a sketch of the front of the work and the upper part of the reverse, with letters indicating the different colors and materials (gesso white, rusted metal, cadmium red light, weathered wood, and brick nails). Writing about the work Indiana explains that:

"[the] top 1/2 of [this] construction had already been gesso'd, but today I saw'd a demarcating line between the two and affixed the metal disk that must have come fr[om] Fire Island, secured by six rusted brick nails. I knew that I would use color on this too but [the] red stripe, as it did fall was a bit of an afterthought."

Indiana also worked on paintings that day, recording that he "was most looking forward to painting the canvasses that I've had ready for several days now."