Joseph R. Knowland (August 5, 1873 - February 1, 1966) was a United States Representative from California. He was born in Alameda, Alameda County, California. He attended public and private schools and the University of the Pacific (later College of the Pacific) in Stockton, California. He became engaged in the wholesale lumber and shipping business and was the director of the American Trust Company. Knowland was member of the State assembly from 1898-1902. He served in the State senate from 1902 until 1904, when he resigned, having been elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Victor H. Metcalf. He was reelected to the Fifty-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from November 8, 1904 to March 3, 1915. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1914. Later, he was president and publisher of the Oakland (California) Tribune, chairman of the California State Park Commission 1936-1960, and chairman of California Centennial Commission in 1950. He was a resident of Piedmont, California, at the time of his death in 1966. His remains were cremated at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
Knowland's son William F. Knowland, who was born in 1908, was a Senator in the United States Senate from 1945-1959.
