The partial cross sections, σ, and the angular distribution parameters, β, of the photoelectrons originating from the 4f and 6s subshells of atomic thulium have been measured in the region of the 5p excitations (23 eV–38 eV). In qualitative agreement with a previous absorption study, our σ curves show two regions of strong resonance enhancement, one around a photon energy of 27 eV corresponding to 5p_3/2 excitations and the other near 32 eV corresponding to 5p_1/2 excitations. The β curves show considerable variation between the allowed extremes of −1.0 and 2.0 for many of the 4f photolines. In addition, the 6s photoline shows very marked deviations from β = 2.0 which is indicative of an open-shell atom. We also compare our experimental results with our calculated 4f partial cross sections. While there is excellent qualitative agreement between theory and experiment, quantitative details are not reproduced: (i) the 5p_3/2 excitations are too narrow, (ii) while the 5p_1/2 excitations have an intensity that is substantially less than what is observed experimentally.