National Steinbeck Center, Literature museum in Salinas, United States.

The National Steinbeck Center is a literature museum in Salinas dedicated to the life and work of California author John Steinbeck. The exhibitions display manuscripts, photographs, and personal belongings that document his literary career and connections to the region.

The Steinbeck Center Foundation was founded in 1983, and the building at One Main Street was planned, funded and erected from 1996 to June 1998, opening to the public on June 27, 1998. In 2016 California State University, Monterey Bay bought the building, now called CSUMB @ Salinas City Center, while the center continues as a non-profit managing the museum and its programs.

The center's main gallery traces Steinbeck's life and work through original manuscripts, family photographs, letters and artifacts from its archive of over 45,000 documents. A small gallery is reserved for rotating exhibitions, and the annual Steinbeck Festival, birthday celebration and Salinas Valley Comic Con are organized here.

The center occupies the CSUMB @ Salinas City Center building at One Main Street, with an orientation theater, a 2,000-square-foot main exhibit hall and a Museum Store. Researchers can reserve time with the archivist to consult the archives. The John Steinbeck House, his childhood home, stands nearby.

The museum holds one of the largest collections of Steinbeck's personal papers and correspondence in the country. These archives contain letters, notebooks, and personal documents that reveal how he worked and thought.