Elizabeth L. Nachman Erlanger, painter, printmaker, and art lecturer was born to George and Ida Nachman in Baltimore, Maryland on 23 October 1889. In 1908, she graduated from the Western High School at the Academy of Music in Baltimore. She attended the Art Students League in New York and later studied under Ralph M. Pearson, Umberto Romano, Jean Liberte and Hans Hofmann.

In addition to her artistic career, she served as the president of the American Society of Contemporary Artists from 1963 to 1965, and as the liaison officer between the United States Commission of the International Art Association to the United States National Commission for UNESCO between 1964 and 1968.