The GOP gathers in Tampa this week to nominate their candidate for the Republican Party ticket in the 2012 presidential election, and the Democrats await their turn in Charlotte next week. The mad theater of campaigns, protests, rallies, and conventions that is our modern political process is not a recent phenomenon. In fact, going back 88 years in these photographs shows candidates on the stump relied on many of the same strategies. Supporters and opponents vied in surging crowds, and passions flamed then as now. -- Lane Turner and Lisa Tuite.

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  Keystone View Co. Inc. of N.Y./ Globe file

  Sept. 11, 1924: Colonel John Coolidge, father of President Calvin Coolidge, inspects the Coolidge-Dawes van before the start of the now famous 1924 Coolidge-Dawes Lincoln Tour, a political parade from Coolidge's birthplace in Plymouth, Vt., to the Pacific Coast. More than 5 million people turned out to view the caravan as it traversed 6,500 miles. More than 100,000 automobiles participated in the motor escort.
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  Globe file

  Oct. 25, 1928: The greatest reception ever accorded to a visitor to Boston at that time awaited Democratic Presidential candidate Governor Al Smith. Thousands of men, women and children fought to see the Democratic candidate in South Station, Dewey Square, and along Summer Street. Smith was making a swing through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut in an effort to win electoral votes.
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  Associated Press

  Oct. 19 1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt greeted miners in Elm Grove, W. Va., on his way to Wheeling, where he delivered a campaign speech. Governor Roosevelt, holding a baby from the crowd, shook hands with a miner. When Roosevelt asked him how he was faring during the depression, the miner replied, "Six days, six dollars."
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  Wide World Photo

  Oct. 25 1936: At a campaign stop in Indianapolis, living symbols of the Republican Party paraded to greet Governor Alf Landon upon his arrival. Landon was to make a campaign address at the State Fair Grounds. Each of the 14 elephants wore a lettered blanket, which spelled out "Welcome Landon."
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  The Boston Globe

  Aug. 27, 1960: At the Chicago GOP convention, "Great Ladies" of the Republican Party modeled 100 years of the most fashionable gowns worn by GOP First Ladies since the Party's inception. The fashion show took place at the "Great Ladies of America" lunch for 1400 Republican women and wives of delegates here. On the left, Mrs. Howard Baker, daughter of Senator and Mrs. Everett Dirksen models the Mary Todd Lincoln gown; Mrs. Fred Seaton, wife of the Interior Secretary, models the Lucy Webb Hayes gown; and Mrs. Charles Halleck, wife of the House Minority Leader models the Helen Herron Taft gown.
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  Tony Spina/Knight Newspapers/Associated Press

  Aug. 22 1964: Members of the Freedom Party waited for hotel rooms in Atlantic City. They were among the delegates from the Freedom Party who hoped to be seated at the Democratic National Convention in place of the all-white regular Democratic delegation from Mississippi.
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  Associated Press

  Aug. 28 1968: At the Chicago convention, an antiwar demonstrator confronts National Guard troops in front of Chicago's Conrad Hilton Hotel, while a few miles away at the International Amphitheatre the Democratic National Convention nominated Hubert H. Humphrey for president on the first ballot.
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  United Press International

  Aug. 23 1972: In Miami, a war protestor spread out on the hood of a car after dumping trash near the Convention Hall. The tactics of the bands of demonstrators - estimated by police at 3,500 - involved rushing to intersections to block vehicles and prevent delegates from getting inside the hall to hear President Nixon's acceptance of the nomination.