Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman

Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman (1819–1888) was personal physician to Leland Stanford, the eighth governor of California.

Stillman wrote the book The Horse in Motion (1881) for Stanford, a study of the different strides of horses, based on the photographs that Eadweard Muybridge had produced for Stanford. Stanford wanted to breed and train fast horses, but didn't trust most of the theories and images of their fast movements. When Muybridge published the chronophotographic picture sequences in 1878 as cabinet cards entitled The Horse in Motion, the actual positions of the legs during the different phases of trot and gallop had surprised a public accustomed to unrealistic paintings of horses in motion. Muybridge sued Stanford because the publication lacked proper credits for his work and the many illustrations based on his pictures.

Early life Stillman was born 1819 in Schenectady, New York. He was the son of Joseph Stillman II and Elizabeth Maxson, better known as JDB, was the namesake of Jacob D. Babcock of Ashaway, Rhode Island JDB migrated to California in 1849 and made a name not only as a physician but also as an adventurist, writer and a pioneer in the medical field.

Personal life Stillman was married twice. His first wife was Caroline Maxson (1822–1852), whom he married in 1843. Before her death in New York on May 26, 1852, they were the parents of:

John Maxson Stillman (1852–1923), a professor of history and chemistry, he married Emma Rodolph.

After the death of his first wife, JDB remarried Mary Gavitt Wells (1833–1923), a daughter of William Davis Wells and Abby Gavitt Wells of Westerly, Rhode Island in 1854, and continued his medical practice in New York. Together, they were the parents of:

Dr. Stanley Stillman (1861–1934), a surgeon who married Josephine Welsh.