Frank Jacobs

Big Think Home

Frank Jacobs

Journalist, writer, and blogger

strange maps

Frank Jacobs is Big Think's "Strange Maps" columnist.

From a young age, Frank was fascinated by maps and atlases, and the stories they contained. Finding his birthplace on the map in the endpapers of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings only increased his interest in the mystery and message of maps.

While pursuing a career in journalism, Frank started a blog called Strange Maps, as a repository for the weird and wonderful cartography he found hidden in books, posing as everyday objects and (of course) floating around the Internet.

"Each map tells a story, but the stories told by your standard atlas for school or reference are limited and literal: they show only the most practical side of the world, its geography and its political divisions. Strange Maps aims to collect and comment on maps that do everything but that - maps that show the world from a different angle".

A remit that wide allows for a steady, varied diet of maps: Frank has been writing about strange maps since 2006, published a book on the subject in 2009 and joined Big Think in 2010. Readers send in new material daily, and he keeps bumping in to cartography that is delightfully obscure, amazingly beautiful, shockingly partisan, and more.

Everything Videos Articles
Strange Maps
How the New Madrid Earthquake Created a Kentucky Exclave on the Mississippi
Meet Kentucky's western exclave, courtesy of the Mississippi
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Map of Russia’s Third Empire (2053)
Almost ten years after its first publication, are the predictions in this book any closer to coming true? 
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Map of Synthetica, A New Continent of Plastics
A 1940 map of a fictional continent slightly resembling South America, symbolising different aspects of the new and exciting world of plastics
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
174 – The Nine Nations of North America
Forget about the United States of America, forget about Canada and about Mexico. North America might be divided into these three states, but the northern half of the American continent […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
181 – “Scotland – Land of Heroes and of Cakes”
n A gallant piper, stuggling through the bogs,nHis wind bag broken, wearing his clay clogs;nYet, strong of heart, a fitting emblem makesnFor Scotland – land of heroes and of cakes. […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
176 – Wallonie-sur-Mer
n It’s more than three months now since Belgium held a general election, and the federal kingdom by the North Sea is still without a national government. The impasse following […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Centuries-old Cartoon Captures England’s True Feelings About France
Brexit lends a renewed poignancy to Gillray's scatological cartoon 
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
173 – The Hungry Gulf Crocodile
When historians look back on the current conflict in Iraq, they might very well call it the Third Gulf War. The first one would have been the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
172 – A Texan’s Map of the United States
At 678.051 km² (261.797 sq. mi), Texas is the largest of the 48 contiguous states. With a population of over 23 million, it’s also the second most populous, after California. […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
170 – A Map of the Internet’s Black Holes
The series of tubes famously dubbed the ‘internets’ by president G.W. Bush* constitute a world wide web of interconnectedness. But, as this map demonstrates, there are some black holes in […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
See Borneo Swallow the British Isles Whole
A curious map from Alfred Russel Wallace, the father of biogeography
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Cat’s Map of the Bed
Are you sure you are not your cat's pet?
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Bird’s Eye View of San Francisco Destroyed by Fire
111 years ago, San Francisco was almost wiped off the map
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Map of the United Countries of Baseball
Baseball is the quintessential North American sport, as demonstrated by this map
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
168 – “Does My Brazil Look Big in This?”
n n This little piece of fashion cartography was made by Dutch artist Coriette Schoenaerts, based in Amsterdam and London. On her website, she explains why she went to the […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
167 – Gales in the Atlantic, Gaels in the North Sea
On 23 July 1977, this map appeared in Krazy Comic, a short-lived (Oct ’76 – Apr ’78) British comic magazine. Judging by the colours alone, this is pretty much your […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
166 – Neisse Border, If You Can Get One
After 1945, Germany lost about a quarter of its pre-1933 territory to Poland and the Soviet Union. The German-Polish border was established at the so-called Oder-Neisse Line, after the two […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
165 – Licking Europe: Asia As A Horse
Heinrich Bunting‘s Itinerarium Sacra Scripturae (‘Travels According to the Scriptures’), first published in 1581, contained accurate maps of the Holy Land, but also three maps of pure fantasy. Two of […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
163 – Europe Wipes Britain off the Map!
n The Daily Mail is one of the UK’s more euroskeptic newspapers, so it must have been with much delight that they were able to present this map to their […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
162 – The United States of Florida
n “It takes a big state to absorb the entire North every winter,” the New York Times wrote on February 2 of this year. “Florida is pulling it off.” n […]
Frank Jacobs
Learn from the world's biggest thinkers.
© Copyright 2007-2026 & BIG THINK, BIG THINK PLUS, SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by Freethink Media, Inc. All rights reserved.