John Steinbeck into the California Hall of Fame, located at the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. His son, author Thomas Steinbeck, accepted the award on his behalf. To commemorate the 112th anniversary of Mr. Steinbeck's birthday on February 27, 2014, Google displayed an interactive doodle utilizing animation which included illustrations portraying scenes and quotes from several novels by the author. Steinbeck and his friend Ed Ricketts appear as a fictionalized characters in the 2016 novel, "Monterey Bay" about the founding of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, by Lindsay Hatton (Penguin Press). Steinbeck was affiliated to the St. Paul's Episcopal Church
National Steinbeck Center affiliated programs. The National Steinbeck Center Archives constitutes of over 45,000 historical documents, family documents, manuscripts, letters, photographs, films, interviews, and artifacts all pertaining to author John Steinbeck and the history of his hometown of Salinas. The Archives department manages and preserves these holdings. Currently the NSC is working to digitize and make their collection browsable online. Interested researchers, scholars, historians and students are able to reserve and schedule time to research the collections with the archivist. Events and outreach programming makes up the bulk of the National Steinbeck Center's time, effort, and budget. The Center plans and runs over