Every fall, tens of millions of monarch butterflies travel from southern Canada and the United States to forests in Michoacán, Mexico. Their numbers are so great that branches can sag or break beneath them, while the butterflies cover the trees in dense, moving layers.
Cartoonist Peter Kuper first saw the monarchs’ winter roosts in 2007. Although the sheer number of insects initially unsettled him, he was captivated by the sight of butterflies rising into the air like sparks from a fire. He has since used monarchs as symbols of transformation and resilience.
The butterflies appear in several of Kuper’s works, including “Diario de Oaxaca,” his illustrated account of two years living with his family in Oaxaca; “Ruins,” a 2015 graphic novel loosely inspired by that experience; and “Insectopolis,” his 2025 tribute to insects and the people who champion them.
That fascination is now the focus of “Monarch’s Journey,” a new exhibition at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. For the installation, Kuper’s drawings have been enlarged into wall-sized graphics in a corridor at the museum’s Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation.
The exhibition presents an immersive version of the monarch migration. Among the images are drawings of a solitary butterfly crossing dangerous landscapes, including power plants, strip mines and the New Jersey Turnpike. These scenes are rendered in cool, steely shades of blue and reflect the perils facing the journey alongside its natural spectacle.
Sources: The New York Times Science.