In 1853, shortly after the death of his father and wife Caroline, the latter to a cholera epidemic, Leopold Blaschka – grief stricken and in need of a vacation – traveled to the United States. En route the ship was becalmed and lay still upon the sea for two weeks. During this period of forced idleness, Leopold studied and sketched the local marine invertebrate population, intrigued by the transparency of their bodies similar to the glass his family had long worked.