History is like Frankenstein's monster; all it takes to make it come alive is the right education, a large body of artifacts exhumed from the earth, and an electrical storm. Learn from the past with today's Groupon to the Hoboken Historical Museum. Choose one of the following options:

• $20 for an individual one-year membership (a $40 value)
• $30 for a family one-year membership, good for all family members living at the same address (a $65 value)
• $15 for one ticket to the 2010 Hoboken House Tour on October 24 (a $30 value if purchased on the day of the event)

The Hoboken Historical Museum celebrates the history, culture, architecture, and overall coolness of the Hoboken area, with 2,000 square feet of photos and artifacts located within the former Bethlehem Steel shipyard. Currently, the main gallery exhibit Surveying the World: Keuffel & Esser + Hoboken, 1870–1968, running until December 23, serves up 500 engineering instruments manufactured by the firm Keuffel & Esser from 1870 to 1968. Visitors to the exhibit can interact with a slide rule or telepathically take apart a transit instrument to discover the goblins turning the gears within. The museum also has an upper gallery, which is a venue for local artists to exhibit work about Hoboken and its environs. Previous artists include popular cityscape artist Frank Hanavan, photographer Virginia Parrott, and the fifth-grade class at Wallace Elementary School. Support the Hoboken Historical Museum with a one-year individual or family membership—both membership packages include benefits such as free admission to the museum, discounts on select museum gift-shop items, a subscription to the museum's quarterly newsletter, and free copies of the museum's Oral History Project chapbooks.

The annual Hoboken House Tour opens up Hoboken's homesteads to those wishing to see amazing interiors without again getting arrested for breaking and entering. The 2.5-hour, self-guided walking tour will take place on October 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Get a sneak peek at tour stops here or simply hold off until you carry yourself across the thresholds of these historic brownstones and modern condos on the day of the tour.

Memberships must be activated within two months of today's date.

Reviews

Although online reviews for the Hoboken Historical Museum are still growing, the Jersey Journal and hMAG featured it.

• The skeletons of Hoboken's once substantial industrial presence have been converted to luxury apartments and upscale businesses. But quietly tucked away in the midst of all that transformation is the Hoboken Historical Museum, serving as a reminder to any inhabitants who might stop and take notice of the city that existed here long before the smoked glass and mirror facades that characterize it today. – Chris Halleron, hMAG