I have often wondered if this photograph could be an original. How to tell?

Opinions, questions, suggestions?

As in is the photo you have possession of is an original?  It may be hard to tell.  Look at the paper type, and you might have a really good photo lab take a peek at it.  A lot of things could make it an "original" if it's a later print off of the original negative, or what have you.

i guess it depends what kind of paper it is. if it says kodak i would say it isnt lol

First let me thank you for your replies, this forum never fails.

Yes, the photograph does have a sepia appearance to it. I use a Fujifilm digital camera which allows me to select "sepia", however the photograph shown has much deeper as well as muted tones. I searched for "silver photographs" also known as Albumen prints but the photograph I have is not.

The printing on the back side of the paper is very faded and difficult to read, I was able to read it by changing the angle of the light and using a magnifying glass, it reads
"THIS PAPER WAS MANUFACTURED BY KODAK"

I did some searches and found that Kodak first begun to produce products for the printing industry in 1912 however I could not find era samples of their paper.

Here is a sample of a photograph I found similar to the one I have looks like.

I am very thankful for your help and suggestions.

Could you explain what that is?

If the sepia color on your photograph tends toward reddish brown it's more likely selenium-toned. Sepia tends toward a yellowish brown.
Were it a very old photograph I would expect the very dark areas to have a shiny look to it as the silver oxidizes.
Toning helps to prevent that discoloration with age, selenium a bit better than sepia.
Kodak itself might be a good resource for indicating a date range.

ETA many photo papers have a color tone of their own, usually very subtle. It's what makes them so luscious.
This is in contrast to the more common coated papers in mass use.

Great information!

Thanks.