He organized an informal quadrennial summertime "Institute of Folklore" beginning in 1942 which lasted beyond his retirement from tenure in 1955. In 1962, a permanent Institute of Folklore was established at Bloomington, with Richard Dorson serving as its administrator and chief editor of its journal publication. For nearly twenty years after his retirement, Thompson continued to work on his "Motif-Index of Folk-Literature" and "The Types of the Folktale" while also taking time to collaborate on projects with other folklorists such as Jonah Balys' "The Oral Tales of India" and Warren Roberts' "Types of Indic Folktales". He even produced an anthology at the age of 83, "One Hundred Favorite Folktales".