See catalog entry to request materials from Part 1 and for additional information.

This manuscript portion of the Knowles material consists of papers concerning Knowles' career in the Senate and his tenure as lieutenant governor as well as his private life. Included are correspondence (mainly 1940-1956) with family, friends, Republican political leaders, and constituents; notes; reports; speeches; press releases; campaign records from his 1940, 1944, 1954 and 1962 campaigns and from the 1950 and 1952 gubernatorial campaigns of Walter Kohler Jr.; memorabilia; and scrapbooks of photographs and biographical clippings. Also included are files concerning various civic and financial involvements such as the Bong Memorial Foundation, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, and the University of Wisconsin Alumni association; legal records from his New Richland law practice and estate papers pertaining to his father, Judge Warren P. Knowles Sr.; and constituent correspondence of his brother Robert Knowles. Among the prominent correspondents are John Byrnes, Thomas Coleman, Glenn Davis, Frank Graass, Walter Kohler Jr., Philip Kuehn, Melvin Laird, Jack Olson, Oscar Rennebohm, Alexander Wiley, John Wyngaard, and Robert Zimmerman.

Taken as a whole, the Knowles manuscript papers are an outstanding collection for study of Wisconsin politics during the 1940s and 1950s because they offer much more extensive documentation than may be found in the collections of other Wisconsin legislators and political figures of the period. In addition, because such political collections are frequently bureaucratic and depersonalized in character, the Knowles collection is even more extraordinary because it offers researchers a large volume of personal material which allow many insights about an individual who ultimately rose to political prominence in the state.

Nevertheless, there are some gaps in the coverage. The more valuable and revealing documentation stops in 1955, no doubt because this portion of the collection was donated to the Historical Society in 1956. As a consequence, Knowles' three terms as lieutenant governor are represented only by files of official constituent correspondence and reference material. Furthermore, there is no documentatiotation stops in 1955, no doubt because this portion of the collection was donated to the Historical Society in 1956. As a consequence, Knowles' three terms as lieutenant governor are represented only by files of official constituent correspondence and reference material. Furthermore, there is no documentation on either the 1959-1960 and 1963-1964 periods when Knowles was out of office. Particularly disappointing is the absence of any material on the 1964 gubernatorial campaign or the period prior to that campaign. There are also no materials in the collection on Knowles' career after he retired from public life in 1970.

The collection consists primarily of correspondence, together with lesser quantities of memoranda, notes, reports, speeches, campaign files, memorabilia, biographical clippings, and legal files. Documenting Knowles' private life is a large volume of correspondence with family and friends, legal and personal financial materials, and campaign records.

The early Knowles Papers consist of files created and maintained by his secretary in his New Richmond law office. It seems likely that even the 1943 constituent correspondence file was handled in this manner. (There are no similar files, however, for the 1945, 1947, or 1949 legislative sessions.) After Knowles became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he acquired the services of a secretary in Madison. It is this fact which accounts for the existence in the collection of separate Senate constituent correspondence files (designated “Madison files”) for 1951 and 1953.

Documentation on Knowles' public life, which primarily documents his career as lieutenant governor, consists of constituent correspondence for 1943, 1951, 1953, 1957, and 1961. The small size and lesser historical interest of this correspondence no doubt reflects the limited responsibilities of the office of lieutenant governor.

The collection also includes some miscellaneous legal case files of Governor Knowles' father, Judge Knowles, and 1957 constituent correspondence of Knowles' brother Robert who succeeded him in the Senate.

Much of the earlier material in the collection originally consisted of deteriorating, high-acid paper. This portion of the collection has been microfilmed and with the exception of his photograph albums and D-Day notebooks is only available in that form. The collection is arranged by documentation type, with correspondence being the most extensive.

CORRESPONDENCE is arranged by year, with various subject subdivisions thereunder. It covers a wide variety of topics ranging from his World War II V-Mail to Dorothy Knowles and many exchanges with friends concerning hunting and fishing trips to extended discussions of Wisconsin politics with other legislators and Republican Party leaders. In general, however, Knowles' political comments are more useful for a study of general political events rather than for an examination of the development of specific legislation. There are also segregated subject files in the correspondence on his various civic and financial involvements such as the Bong Memorial Foundation, the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association, and the Northwestern Mutual Insurance Company. Also included here are photograph albums from Carleton College, a 1937 trip to Mexico, and his tour of duty on the USS Nevada.

Campaign records in the correspondence document Knowles' 1940 and 1944 Senate campaigns, his 1954 lieutenant governor's race, his abortive 1962 gubernatorial campaign, and the 1950 and 1952 gubernatorial campaigns of Walter Kohler Jr., in which he played a key leadership role. Such files include not only correspondence, but also campaign literature, statistics, planning material, and reports.

The Knowles correspondence has not been indexed, but researchers on Wisconsin politics will find letters to and from virtually every major Wisconsin Republican for the period 1940-1956. Among them are John Byrnes, Thomas Coleman, Glenn Davis, Frank Graass, Walter Kohler Jr., Philip Kuehn, Melvin Laird, Jack Olson, Oscar Rennebohm, Alexander Wiley, John Wyngaard, and Robert Zimmerman.

PRESS RELEASES consist of notices issued as senator and as lieutenant governor, as well as items pertaining to various electoral campaign. SPEECHES includes drafts and final copies of formal remarks made from 1945 to 1964, together with two recorded speeches and sounding recordings of several shorter items. It is unlikely that this file represents a complete record of his pre-gubernatorial speeches and remarks.

MEMORABILIA AND BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION consists of microfilmed biographical newspaper clippings and general career and campaign memorabilia. This section does not include buttons or other Knowles political artifacts which are housed with the Museum collections. Non-gubernatorial scrapbooks in the collection are available in the Visual and Sound Archives.

The collection also includes a segment of LEGAL FILES which includes records of some miscellaneous cases of Judge Knowles and a chronological legal correspondence file of Warren P. Knowles III. A large portion of both of these files pertains to the Weyburn Security Company and to the management of its complicated land holdings as part of Judge Knowles' estate.