Louisville native Theodore Paul Eitel was a member of the American Naturalistic Photography movement of the early 20th century. He exhibited nationally in such cities as Chicago, Minneapolis and Boston, and internationally in Budapest and London. His work was published in Photo Era, Youth's Companion, American Amateur Photographer and the American Annual of Photography. Eitel used the wet-plate photographic process, preparing and developing glass plates on location, using a mobile darkroom. He was the son of German immigrants, and his heritage showed in his veneration of trees, a trait shared with fellow photographer Paul Gunter and photographer-painters Carl Christian Brenner and Joseph Krementz.