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Frank Jacobs

Journalist, writer, and blogger

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.

strange maps

148 – Oh, Inverted World

As we’ve all learned in school, 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, only 30% is solid ground. What if everything was reversed? What if every land mass […]

Sequoyah, the Stillborn State for Native Americans

President Theodore Roosevelt vetoed the idea.

146 – Comparing Wikipedia to China, Macedonia and Barbados

n Frank San Miguel (“software geek, boat builder, musician and a veteran of a number of internet startups”, including what became mapquest.com) alerted me to this nifty little map he […]

145 – The Madonna Map Syndrome

n The cyclist pauses amid fields of produce that stretch toward the horizon, punctuated only by farms and roads. He stares in bafflement at a road map far too elaborate […]

On June 3, almost 9 months after the first post on September 10 last year, the hit counter on strangemaps went up to 1 million. Today, a bit over a […]

144 – Single Guys Live in LA, Single Girls in NYC

n This map out of the National Geographic magazine was sent to me by Xyzzy, a name that gives nothing away as to gender affiliation or relationship status. If Xyzzy […]

143 – Ex Unum Pluribus: New American Nations

The motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, Latin for ‘Out of Many, One’. Matt Kirkland, who provided me this map, thinks the US has become too unwieldy, […]

142 – Redonda: Once, Twice, Nine Times A Micronation

The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Leo I of Redonda The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Robert I the Bald of Redonda On his second transatlantic […]

A Curious Map Showing Europe as a Queen

Spain is the head, Lithuania the left knee – you get the idea

The Great Australian Inland Sea

If other continents have large inland river systems, why wouldn’t Australia?

‘Scott’s Great Snake’: a Plan to Strangle the Confederacy

It might have snuffed out Secession with minimal loss of life; but Lincoln chose both the blockade and an invasion

The Schlieffen Plan, Blueprint for German Victory

Failed in both world wars

137 – Occupied Territories

n Dominique Taléghani is a French scientific journalist by day, a designer of imaginary cartographies by night. On his or her (Dominique is one of those unisex first names) blog, […]

New Jersey, Mapped by Springsteen Lyrics

Is the Boss to Jersey what Joyce was to Dublin?

New Switzerland, Jules Verne’s Imaginary Shipwreck Sanctuary

The only way to visit this island is to read the book

A Map of Poland Under its Wry-Mouthed Duke

Despite centuries of war and territorial changes, Poland then looks a lot like Poland now.

136 – New Iceland – A Forgotten Nordic Colony In Canada

n When it comes to the discovery and colonization of America, Iceland can claim a longer pedigree than all other European countries. The Icelandic explorer Leif Eriksson (970-1020) was the […]

135 – Update On the GDP Map of the USA

I’m not in the habit of extensively revisiting strange maps already posted here, as there are so many more out there. But the map of the ‘US States Renamed For […]

131 – US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs

This map renames American states as countries with similar GDPs. It gives you a sense of just how wealthy the United States is.

The Jireček Line

Yet another border dividing the Balkans, in Greek and Roman halves.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”: Real Places May Have Inspired Middle Earth

Tolkien himself wrote that “as for the shape of the world of the Third Age, I am afraid that was devised ‘dramatically’, rather than geologically, or paleontologically.”

Meet the Zoo Hiding in the Tube Map

All Elephant and No Castle: a secret bestiary of the London Underground

The North Pole, Land of Pygmies and Giant Magnets

According to Mercator, the North Pole was marked by a giant black magnetic rock

130 – A Ten-State Australia

n The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901. Its constitution provides for the creation of new states, also by subdividing extisting ones. Several proposals have been made to alter […]

129 – China As A World Power: How Big?

n China is flexing its economic muscle nowadays, a process the country itself terms a peaceful rise. One wonders what will happen when China will have ‘risen’: to what degree […]

126 – Hannover On Her Mind – and On Her Back

n “I wanted something unique, something nobody else had. But every idea I had – it had already been done,” says Britta Oelschlaeger. The 33-year-old photographer, who hails from the […]

125 – Big Bog, Rock Star, Spoon Farm and Other Stops On the Stockholm Metro

This is a map of the Stockholm Metro, with the original Swedish names of all the stops translated into English. Literal translations often make for funny reading, and this map […]

123 – The Hutt River Principality: What, No Prince Jabba?

n Some 75 sq. km of the state of Western Australia form Australia’s oldest micronation. The Hutt River Principality has about 20 permanent residents, but thanks to the fascination exerted […]

122 – The Fro Gymraeg, A Reservation For Welsh

n English is the dominant language in the British Isles, also in their Celtic fringe – Ireland, Scotland, Wales. In Scotland but mainly in Ireland, some territorial measures have been […]

Today the hit counter of this blog went over one million. I’m at a loss for words. Thanks, all of you, for stopping by. I hope you keep enjoying this […]