Several classical age writers described Sirius as red or reddish or more red than Mars, along with other red and orange stars that are still the same colors described in the past.
Sirius has been described in recent times as a star near the end of time on the main sequence, but still hundreds of thousands of years short of any spectacular change.
If The Star Sirius Was Described As Red In Historical Times, Why Is It White Now?
I think this is simply a question of descriptive precision. the question only becomes significant when in the visual difference comparison using the terms 'white or reddish' they are further quantified. Appropriate quantification is perhaps possible by reference to colour atlases such as Pantone and Lovibond, or to colorimetric systems such as Cielab.
Two references for you:
http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1995JHA....26..187C/0000197.000.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius
Sirius is a double star. The companion was discovered at Dearborn Observatory where I did my undergraduate work. Also, Prof. Karl G. Henize, an astronomy professor at Northwestern University where the observatory is located, was principal investigator of an experiment on the Gemini 12 flight that used a “70-mm general-purpose camera equipped with a 73-mm ultraviolet lens, a 10-degree objective prism in a cell which attached to the ultraviolet lens, and a reflection grating in a cell which attached to the ultraviolet lens” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Gemini Mission Program Report Gemini XII, MSC-G-R-57-1, January 1967) to obtain spectra of stars in the wavelength from 2000 to 4000 angstroms, just below the range for visible light. It was used to take a the spectrum of Sirius showing absorption lines not visible from the ground (see attached). I was one of his research assistants.
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