The collection consists of group portraits of the University of Michigan hockey team.
Joseph Ernest Barss was born in Madras (later Chennai), India on February 27, 1892 to John Howard Barss, a Canadian missionary, and Elizabeth (Townson) Barss. Shortly after his birth, the Barss family relocated to Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Barss later enrolled in Acadia University and received his A.B. in 1912. According to John U. Bacon, author of Blue Ice: The Story of Michigan Hockey (2001) and The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism (2017), Barss also played for the Montreal Wanderers, a men's hockey team, after graduating from Acadia University.
In 1915, Barss enlisted in the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force and fought in World War I for several years. By November 1917, he had relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Shortly after his return, the Halifax Explosion—caused by the collision of the SS Mont-Blanc and the SS Imo--severely damaged Halifax as well as Dartmouth, Africville, and a settlement of Miꞌkmaq people on Tufts Cove named Turtle Grove. The explosion also killed more than 1,500 people and injured approximately 9,000 more. Barss provided first aid assistance in the aftermath of the explosion; according to Bacon, he was thereafter inspired to become a doctor.
In 1919, Barss immigrated to the United States and enrolled in the University of Michigan as a bacteriology student. He joined the Medical School in 1920; worked as a pharmacology assistant from circa 1922-1924 and junior surgery intern from 1924-1925; and eventually joined the university's Alpha chapter of Nu Sigma Nu, a medical fraternity. Beginning in 1922, Barss also served as the University of Michigan's inaugural ice hockey coach. Barss—who had received his M.D. from the university in 1924—continued coaching the team until 1927, although he also worked as a medical assistant in anatomy for the university from circa 1926-1929.
Barss later left the University of Michigan and moved to Cook County, Illinois, where he practiced medicine at various institution, including Hines Veteran Hospital in Maywood, Illinois. In 1930, he became a naturalized citizen of United States. Barss retired in 1962, eventually moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and passed away there on January 26, 1971.
In 1969, the Dekers Blue Line Club—the formal booster club of the University of Michigan men's hockey team—inducted Barss into its Hall of Fame. After his passing, the club established the Joseph E. Barss Award, which is awarded annually to a particularly collaborative University of Michigan ice hockey player.
