Erlena Chisolm Bland

Erlena Chisolm Bland (January 18, 1923 – February 16, 2009) was an American painter and sculptor.

Born in Washington, D.C., Bland attended Dunbar High School and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Howard University; she acknowledged a master's degree in library science at the University of Maryland, College Park. She spent approximately two decades as a librarian operational with special education students at Goding Elementary School in Washington. She created art during her release time, and in retirement took classes at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Corcoran School of Art, and the Art League in Alexandria, Virginia before acquiring a studio. She exhibited throughout the Washington D.C. area and supplementary afield during her career, showing be in both solo and in society exhibitions. With her husband, Dr. Charles N. Bland, she had two children, a son and a daughter; the couple expected and built their own house on Kalmia Road in Washington. Bland died of cancer at a nursing home in Washington. She was buried at Fort Lincoln Cemetery after a funeral at the Dumbarton Chapel upon the Howard University campus.