Personal Materials include copies of awards, campaign materials (1955-1974), correspondence (1955-1965), photographs (circa 1960s-1970s) and speeches undated; 1946; 1950-1975). The speeches were hand written on rapidly aging yellow legal sized notebook paper and were thus photocopied onto acid neutral paper for preservation reasons.

Newspaper Clippings (undated; 1945-1980) were mainly from the La Crosse Tribune newspaper and the bulk were clipped during Knutson's tenure as mayor of the City of La Crosse. These items were not photocopied for preservation. These give a sense of the context of Knutson's speeches and actions while in office.

La Crosse City Government (roughly 1950-1969) covers City Council , City Departments and Subject files. Subject files are generally local organizations and other governmental units and contain a wide variety of materials. The largest files represent topics that Knutson was most involved with; namely, La Crosse County Government, the Northern States Power Rate Complaint documents and correspondence (1955-1957), the La Crosse Interstate Fair, and the Wisconsin State College (became the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse).

Knutson championed each of his residential and commercial constituents by winning a despute with the Northern States Power Company (NSP) over what he saw as unfair rates. Knutson enlisted the help of __ Clemons, a professor from __, who did the actual comparison of Coulee Region electric rates vs. those of customers in Madison, Wisconsin. After testifying at the Public Service Commission, the ultimate verdict was that La Crosse consumers, and to a lesser extent Eau Clair customers, would see a significant decrease in their rates.

During Knutson's time as mayor, the college wanted to expand its borders east of East Avenue. This necessitated the negiotation and ultimate eviction of the La Crosse Interstate Fairgrounds to new quarters and a financial settlement, then further negiotation with the UW Board of Regents as to a land sale. Eventually this land sale left the city with the municipal pool and the Emerson School grounds and park where it once owned a large tract of land.

Wisconsin State Senate files are arranged in chronological order.