Monarch's Journey

October 16, 2026

Opening Soon

Included with any admission.
Floor 2, Gilder Center

Artist's rendering of five monarch butterflies taking flight from farmland and heading across the river towards the New York City skyline.
Peter Kuper
Every autumn, monarch butterflies begin an extraordinary, roughly 3,000-mile migration. 

This new exhibit celebrates the monarch butterflies’ remarkable annual journey from the northern U.S. and Canada to the mountain forests of central Mexico through the work of award-winning graphic novelist and environmentalist Peter Kuper.

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Included with any admission. 
Select a ticket date from October 16 onwards.

Wrapping the walls near the Museum's extensive butterfly research collection, Monarch's Journey explores the challenges monarchs face on their flight through Kuper's bold illustrations, accompanied by a video of monarchs in motion. The exhibit merges art, storytelling, and science to bring visitors into the world of these determined travelers.

Artist's rendering of a girl leaning out of an apartment window and watching a butterfly fly down a city street.
Every autumn, monarchs make a roughly 3,000 mile journey from Canada to Mexico. 
Peter Kuper
Artist's rendering of a monarch butterfly flying past a highway sign that reads South 87.
Monarchs depart northern United States and Canada and navigate south across fields, forests, and cities for thousands of miles.
Peter Kuper
Artist's rendering of a monarch butterfly flying high above the traffic of a busy urban highway.
Increasingly, the monarchs’ journey takes them over areas transformed by human activity. 
Peter Kuper
Group of monarches flying over a field.
By winter, monarchs gather in great clusters in the mountain forests of central Mexico.  
Peter Kuper
See Live Monarchs!

See up to 80 species of butterflies, including monarchs, and learn about butterfly behavior and lifecycle at the Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium.

Learn more »
Child peers through a magnifying glass at butterflies sipping on orange slices at a feeding station mounted amongst the lush greenery of the Vivarium. Alvaro Keding/© AMNH