Wrapped in cotton wool, tucked in a small black box, placed inside a suitcase, in a dark storage space in New Jersey, lies an important historical artifact: Napoleon’s penis. Yep, that Napoleon, and yep—his penis.

The shriveled mummified member, which was purchased by American urologist John K. Lattimer in 1972 for $3,000, measures a robust inch and a half and has been described justly as “a bit like beef jerky,” by historian and writer Tony Perrottet.

Perrottet, a Napoleon penis expert, wrote an entire book about Napoleon jr., and was one of only 10 people granted a peep by Lattimer’s daughter, who inherited the famous phallus after her father died.

This important fact, shared by redditor Radu316, brings to light the long journey embarked upon by the wee wiener, after being abruptly removed from the rest of Napoleon during his autopsy in 1821.

According to The Washington Post, along with a few other parts of Napoleon, the penis “came into the hands of an Italian priest.” (facepalm) After his decedents got tired of holding on to it, it landed with a London bookseller, who sold it to some guy in Philadelphia. Just over a hundred years after it was first lobbed off, in 1927 it was put on display in New York at the Museum of French Arts.

The penis was tucked away for the next 50 years or so until Lattimer bought it to add to his strange collection of macabre mementos. While no one can say for certain that it is in fact Napoleon’s notorious knob, at least it will be kept safe alongside the other artifacts in Lattimer’s collection, like Abraham Lincoln’s bloodstained collar and Charles Lindbergh’s goggles.