 Belden became prominent in national folklore circles, serving as president of the American Folklore Society and working closely with such period luminaries as the anthropologist Franz Boas and the literary scholar George Lyman Kittredge – again testifying to the new discipline's divided identity.Unfortunately, nothing came of the American Folklore Society's plans, much discussed in 1917, to publish the Missouri collection (which was substantially what it would be on its 1940 appearance).The Society did not participate in the virtual explosion of amateur and academic activity, the formation of organizations and the implementation of collection projects, which extended through the 1920s and 30s.