NATCHEZ — Harriet Davis said she loves history and collecting old things, which is why she feels right at home in the Natchez house she bought three years ago.

The house, built in 1847, once belonged to a local scholar named Polly A. White.

When The Dart landed on North Union Street on Friday afternoon, Davis was being paid a visit by her friend and neighbor Renza Birdie, who lived in Natchez most of her life.

Davis learned of White through family, friends and by reading White’s story in books she said she found in a shed on the property after she bought the house.

“She was a genius,” Davis said of White. “(She) graduated from four different colleges.”

Birdie, who grew up across the street, said she knew White to be a sweet woman and a professor at Alcorn State University in Natchez.

“When we came over here and visited her, she was always very good to us,” Birdie said. “She treated us very well.”

White died in 2008 and Davis said she never got to meet White face to face, but was introduced to White through White’s collection of books.

Among the books, Davis said she also found a framed certificate that acknowledges White to be in the “Who’s Who of American Women.”

“I keep her things here,” Davis said, pointing to a shelf near the entrance to her house, “because someone who did as much as she did in life deserves to be recognized for it. There aren’t many people like that.”

Davis said she moved her family from California to Natchez three years ago because she’d fallen in love with the beautiful old houses, such as the one she bought, in Natchez and the history behind the city.

Davis has accumulated a collection of books and things over the years — things such as classic Coca-Cola and beer bottles, ceramics and plastic figurines of characters few people recognize anymore.

“I’ve always loved to read, ever since I was a little girl,” Davis said. “I try to read a bit of everything I can, and I keep papers between the pages to mark my place for whenever I’m ready to pick up the same book again.”