After the failure of the revolution, in 1850, Eitelberger delivered a series of lectures on art history, the first of which was entitled "Die Bildungsanstalten für Künstler und ihre historische Entwicklung" ("Institutions for the education of artists and their historical development").

Eitelberger's activities attracted the attention of the Austrian Minister for Religion and Education, Count Leopold Thun-Hohenstein, who attempted to secure him a position as professor of art history at the University.

Together with Gustav Heider he published a two-volume corpus of the Mittelalterliche Kunstdenkmäler des österreichischen Kaiserstaates (Medieval monuments of the Austrian Empire), and in 1871 he founded the series Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte (Source Texts for Art History).

In 1868 he founded the museum's educational component, the Kunstgewerbeschule, today the Universität für angewandte Kunst (University for Applied Art).

Eitelberger's simultaneous interest in the historical context of objects, expressed in his series of Quellenschriften, also became a hallmark of the Vienna School, and was pursued in particular by Julius von Schlosser.